OVERVIEW:
In case you weren’t aware, all projects in the first quarter revolve around the themes of “community” and “relationships”. To explore these ideas, Projects 1 and 2 were about relationships – your relationship with yourself and then strengthening relationships with those in your immediate community (the classroom). Project 3 is about symbolism and how inanimate objects may be loaded with meaning and represent different cultural values found in our communities.
Project 4 asks you to look at community through the land, specifically landscapes. Choose a community, place, or landscape that you feel strongly connected to, and photograph the landscape or physical environment in a way that communicates your relationship to the place. It will help if you choose a landscape that you have easy access to – if you want to photograph your home town but you’re a boarder, well lucky you, itʻs a common weekend!
Once youʻve chosen your landscape/community, do some research! Check out the Midkiff Learning Center website on Wahi Pana to see if you can learn more about your subject matter. What is your location named for/after? What grows in your community? Whatʻs the history of the land? Who lived there? What mele or moʻolelo are about your place? See how this research may inform the way you photograph and related to this space.
In a way, this project is sort of like a documentary of place – things change in Hawai’i so quickly, what with construction and land development happening all the time. Just 5 years ago, Kaka’ako looked completely different for example, and I’m sure it’s happening all over the islands. Think about what you want to preserve or celebrate in your landscape when you’re taking pictures.
One famous landscape photographer you should know of is Ansel Adams. When he took pictures, he wasnʻt just taking pictures of the land (point, shoot, process, pau) – he was previsualizing what he wanted and actively working with his camera and the environment to make emotional, meaningful images. Almost like taking a portrait of the landscape. Watch the video below on legendary landscape photographer Ansel Adams and his photographic process to learn more.
WHAT TO TURN IN
- 1 roll of 35mm film
- 1 contact sheet
- 3 8″x10″ prints that best communicate a message about your chosen landscape
Projects #3 & #4 can be done in ANY order depending on the Studio Schedule, BUT one project must be turned in on Friday, March 6 with the next project due Wednesday, March 11.
AT THE END OF THIS PROJECT, STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO:
- continue building familiarity with their camera and the darkroom process
- explore a new photographic genre
- recognize the role photography plays in our understanding of time and place
NEW EQUIPMENT:
For this project, you have the option of exploring how colored filters may affect a black and white images. To understand how colored filters affect black and white images, check out this site here for examples: http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/using-coloured-filters-in-black-and-white-photography PetaPixel also has a pretty good explanation of how colored filters may affect the landscape: https://petapixel.com/2017/02/17/color-filters-affect-bw-photos/
If you want to use new equipment for this project, say so in your project proposal. The equipment will go to the first people who request it in their project proposal. The sooner you turn in your project proposal, the more likely you’ll be able to use new equipment.
- Wide angle lens – 19mm
- Macro-extension tube
- Telephoto lens – 80mm-200mm
- Lensbaby, tilt-shift lens
- TLR camera
INSPIRATION
THIS is a really good podcast about “Why We Love Landscapes” that I found really enlightening. Listen to it in your car when youʻre stuck in traffic or when youʻre stuck inside on a rainy weekend.
Here’s a set of pictures I took of Kaka’ako a few years ago under construction. I took pictures of this urban landscape to show how things change so quickly.
– Photographer Edward Burtynsky focuses on manʻs impact on the natural world, describing his work below:
Nature transformed through industry is a predominant theme in my work. I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. To make these ideas visible I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.
These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear. We are drawn by desire – a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times.
– Kapulani Landgraff’s installation and photographs of “Pono’iwi” talks about Hawai’i’s long practice of taking sand from beaches for use in construction sites despite the fact that Native Hawaiians once buried ‘iwi in the sand dunes. Landgraff says that, “Despite legislation providing a process for protecting Hawai‘i burials and the establishment of burial councils for each island, there is a continued pressure to develop Hawaiian āina (land) and Hawaiian iwi are constantly threatened.”
– Urban Landscapes – Fan Ho started photographing at a young age. Largely self-taught, he captured images of urban Hong Kong, exploring streets, slums, markets, and alleyways. People are often found in his images, but as elements within the overall landscape helping to create human emotions within the scene. Great attention to light, shadow, and composition lends his images a sense of wonder and mystery.
Other Photographers/Projects to look at: