Words, Facts and Quotes for Jeffery Wolin Inspired Work

These are some of the words, facts and quotes I will use for my Jeffery Wolin inspired work. I have chosen to choose text that relates to housing in Croydon to print onto my images in the darkroom. I will be using acetate as an overlay to put the text on and will arrange the text so that it looks like graffiti over the images of the abandoned destroyed car park.  

"WITH an increasing number of families in emergency accommodation, social and private rental supply drying up and a benefits cap around the corner, Croydon's housing system is under intense pressure".

"The number of households living in emergency housing in Croydon has risen six-fold in the last four years, from 61 in 2008 to 441 at the end of 2012".
 "The shortage of available housing has contributed to a significant rise in homelessness.

Croydon council received more than 2,200 homelessness applications in the past 12 months and placed 1,470 households in temporary accommodation, of which record numbers are in emergency housing such as hostels and bed and breakfasts".

"Housing is our number one problem". - Croydon Council chief executive

"There is a housing crisis in Croydon". "Croydon has become a hotspot in terms of a lack of housing availability".

Destruction Demolition = Cost to much money  
Abandoned 
Housing problems 
Needs to GO 

 

Analysis: Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian documentary/ landscape photographer. He is known as one of Canada's most respected photographers and has had his work displayed in over fifty museums around the world. Burtynsky is a well known photographer and is someone I have looked at before but however haven't gone into full detail and looked at many of the meanings behind his work. Burtynsky focuses on modern architecture and the destruction of nature due to new industries that are being created. His photographs include photos of craters, quarries, manufacturing, shipping, oil production and then also photographs the completion of the builds that he is photographing and modern architecture in unusual areas. 

 

This photograph above is one of many in Burtynsky's portfolio which is of a mine in western Australia which he took back in 2007. I really like this photograph because of how its a high angled shot of the landscape and he has composed the shot so that the road is centered in the middle heading towards the horizon. Using the horizon and this road to go towards a vanishing point makes us feel that and looks like the mines along the side of the road are carrying on for miles and the destruction is so much more than just these crater mines in the ground. I really love the contrast of colours in this photograph as well because the white, blacks, creams and browny oranges really show the borders to these mines and roads and even shown the different areas that have been mined far away in the horizon of the photograph because we can see this bright cream sand colours against the much darker colours in the photograph which makes these photographs of destruction and mined away land look really amazing and beautiful landscapes. In some of Burtynskys photographs he also sometimes includes workers, tools and vehicles to be used as a scale to show the vast size of the areas. I really love the composition of Burtynskys work because of how he finds these areas that have all these crazy abstract shapes and lines that are going on around in the photograph from how quarries have been mined out such as this one here:   

 

 

I chose to look at Burtynsky work because I really want to take photographs of urban, destroyed and abandoned areas and document the destruction through enhancing the images. Burtynsky takes photographs of massive landscapes (sometimes also as Arial views) which really shows the vast size of destruction that is happening to an area. I feel that because I don't have the equipment or locations to take these photographs I feel that I want to look at two or three destroyed areas near around me and take some big landscape photographs and then also focus onto detail of the ruins and rubbish that is left in abandoned areas. 

Pinterest Inspiration

Digital Vignetting

Digital Solorization

Analysis: Amy Friend

Amy Friend is a Canadian artist and photographer who grew up in windsor and studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design before travelling around Europe, Morocco, Cuba and the United States. Friend's work has been exhibited in many galleries and has been published in various magazines around the world. 

Amy Friend has lots of inspiration for her photography and has a variety of different pieces in her portfolio. Friend says she's inspired by many things in life such as time, memory, place, water, life and death, freedom, infinity, the stars, movement, silence, stillness, the unknown, and many more. I really like how Friend has focused on a lot of detail in her projects and that her work has a lot of meaning behind it. Freind said in a interview "As cliché as it may sound I want to “touch” people. To gently smack emotion into the air". When looking at Friends work, especially the 'Agua De Noche' and 'Soon This Space Will Be Too Small' I was somewhat quite confused and was trying to figure out my own opinion and emotion about her work because I felt they had a quite obscured meaning. I then read the descriptions and then the photographs started to make more sense because of how the meaning behind the photographs really matched. 

The project 'Agua De Noche' is several photographs taken of hanker chiefs and fabric in the darkness and water. The images portray a story that a Cuban lady told Friend whilst she was travelling around the world. Even though these images are quite simple still life photographs the description that goes alongside the project is very informative and shows that Friend wanted to show her view and have her take on a story that the she got told whilst out in Cuba. For my documentary pathway that I have chosen I feel that I want to focus much more on what Amy Friend does and be able to incorporate more meaning in to the photograph(s) I take by using different techniques and/or basing my photographs around a story or my opinion on a subject (a lot like Mishka Henner's work about prostitution).

I also really loved the project called 'Dare alla Luce' In which Friend used found vintage photographs and altered them by piercing small holes through the image in parts where Friend feels that light is needed to bring the image back to life. I really love the darker vintage photographs because the light being shined through helps show the outline of the subject in the image. I really like how the title 'Dare alla Luce' is an Italian phrase used to describe the moment of birth because it relates relates well with the technique and images.