Delving Deeper Into The Research

My research so far had focused mainly on other photographers’ work, however, my subject area has been influenced by my own experiences and personal preferences, so I wanted to delve deeper and look for inspiration from other places.

When I'm not working on assignments I always have a book on the go.  I can go anywhere with a book, it keeps me occupied when I'm sitting in a coffee shop alone, or on a long journey (not driving though, I get car sick).  A couple of books I read over the summer immediately came to mind when thinking about this project.

In A Short Book About Drawing Andrew Marr explores the subject of drawing and painting, and how this has affected his own art.  There is a section in there about the natural world.  Marr argues many of us live in crowded cities far from open fields and skies.  "Advertisers, such as holiday companies, tease us with imagery of unspoilt landscapes lending a sense of sentimentality to the scenes portrayed.  A walk in beautiful countryside can induce a feeling of being vividly alive and in love with the world."  This quote made me think of an advertisement I'd seen for First Great Western trains who used the beautiful scenery of the South West of the UK to tempt customers to book a train journey with them.  This campaign was launched in February, when it was dark, cold and wet, in most parts of the UK.  Yet these images offered hope of warmer, sunnier days to come.  Richard Misrach, as discussed in my last blog post, used a similar approach with his photography, making industrial buildings look grand and implausibly beautiful.

Image courtesy of The Leith Agency

Marr also discusses the paintings of Claude Monet and how he recorded the changing environment.


Monet's Impressionist painting style sought to capture a moment in time without the detail and smoothness of previous painting eras, which resulted in stark depictions of the industrial revolution and its more adverse effects such as pollution.  In Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil shows a new bridge cutting across an idyllic rural scene, with a train belching steam into the air.  This is in direct contrast to traditional, picturesque connotations a viewer would have with paintings of landscapes and creates a bleak and grim view of the changing environment.

Image courtesy of Christie's

I will do some further research into these two approaches of depicting industry and how I can use one or the other in my own project.  Do you think using beautiful imagery is a more effective way of engaging with the viewer?  Is it more effective than showing people shocking, atrocious images?

Recommended Settings

I'm still happy with my project idea of portraying the impact humans have had on the environment and so these last could of weeks I have been spending some time researching the technical considerations and how I might be able to try something new.

As this is my final university project I wanted to try a style of photography I had not attempted before whilst I still had experts on hand to help.  Back in March there had been a Google Doodle to mark the 216th Birthday of English photographer and botanist Anna Atkins.  Atkins is credited with being the first to use a photographic printing process that produced a cyan-blue print, a cyanotype.  Atkins used the process to create a limited series of cyanotype books that documented ferns and other plant life from her seaweed collection.  Cyanotypes were used extensively by engineers as a simple and low-cost process to create copies of drawings, and were named blueprints.

Image courtesy of Anna Atkins, Ceylon Fern, 1854

I was very taken with the vivid blue colour of the images that were created through this process and wanted to try it myself.  I ordered a starter kit from Silverprint and scoured the local hedgerows for some interesting props to create my image.  It took several attempts, with the first completely disappearing after a couple of hours, but I did manage to finally produce something I was pleased with.  You can't see it very well on the image below, but just at the top of the feather it has captured where it has slightly parted.  Some parts are a lot more detailed than I thought they would be

I need to do a lot more experimenting as the white is still fading away after a while, and I want to try it with a digital negative to perfect this before I have to submit my images.  I am also attracted to double exposure images and think this could be used to portray the good vs. evil sides to the environment.  This is another new process I need to learn, and then turn into a cyanotype print.  I have lots to be working on for the next couple of weeks.

Please do let me know if you have tried making cyanotypes.  Can you recommend any other kits to try?  Or where I might start with learning how to create a double exposure print.  I'd love to hear what you think.