The

Commission
Environment
Task one: Landscape For this task I wanted to investigate how human interferes with the nature, and how a man-made world clashes with the natural environment. I also wanted to show in my images this transition from natural landscape to a human made world, by photographing icons of human world in the face of a vast landscape.

Landscape - Contextual research

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Population growth Urban sprawl Industrial activities Intensive exploitation of the natural resources Poor agricultural practices Human made disasters

All these factors have significant impact on the environment and cause Water/Land/Air Pollution. This leads to ozone depletion and global warming.

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To support my idea and to get better insight into the problem I researched particular photographers, whose works show different types of human interference with the natural environment.

Landscape - Contextual research

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Nadav Kander

Rapidly changing landscape Transition from natural world to man made environment.

Landscape - Contextual research

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Walter Niedermayr

Immense beauty of the mountain landscape.
Pollution and erosion that result from human presence.

Landscape - Contextual research

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Nickel tailings series Water pollution

Edward Butynski

Landscape - Contextual research

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Daniel Beltr

Oil Spills
Water pollution

Landscape - Contextual/Conceptual research

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Robert Adams

Deforestation, industrial development and human habitation. Gave me the idea of transition from natural environment to human made world.

Landscape - Contextual/Conceptual research

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John Davies

Change of British landscape from a natural world into something heavily industrial. Helped me to chose the subject to photograph.

Landscape Contextual research

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Vanishing Landscapes

Photographs of changing landscapes

Landscape - Conceptual research/Visual strategy

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An My Le

Greatness of a vast landscape contaminated by the presence of human.

Helped me to make decisions about composition.

Landscape - Conceptual research/Visual strategy

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William Henry Jackson

Inspired me in terms of using the sense of scale.

Landscape - Conceptual research/Visual strategy

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Andreas Gursky

The Becher School helped to structure my composition and framing.

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Landscape - Locations:
Kingsnorth power station in Hoo, Medway
Gravesand Power Station

Commission
Landscape Final Images

Commission
Landscape - Evalua?on
My allegorical landscape images show how human made world interfere with the natural environment and how it is being changed due to industrialisation. By constant development human takes advantage of natural resources and changes environment very significantly, which in the long term leads ozone depletion and global warming.
Context:
Conceptual photography showing relations between human and nature (exhibition, book)
Photographic choices:
Use of standard lens to maintain correct perspective (straight horizon line).
Use of shallow DOF to focus on icons of human made world (blur-nature fall into decay)
Shot from the distance and from low angle to achieve the sense of scale (transition).
Shot in direct sunlight for good contrast and harsh shadows (for impact).

Commission Landscape - Evalua?on

Studies management:
Good planning in terms of subject choice, location, time of the day for the shoot.
Conceptual research helped with my approach to the subject and photographic choices.
Time management allowed me to research and shoot on equal level.
Should have done more contextual research.
Need to reect on:
How to maintain consistency of my photographs in order to create a series of images. (different sky)
Think of a series when printing to make sure that colours are correct and consistent in all photographs.
Most signicant challenge:
Keep the same principle in terms of composition to make the series (visual or psychological).

The Commission
Environment
Task two: Cityscape In my cityscape images I want to show an archaeological trace of lost/forgotten civilisations or deserted/abandoned cities. Through my photographs I want to indicate the "mysterious existence" of these places, as they still exist in the history.

Commission Cityscape - Ini?al Idea

Initial idea - "anti iconic, neglected landmarks of a city. Strood Area where rubble and rubbish was laying around. I met a man digging holes. He told me that in Victorian times around 1886-1905, this area used to be a dump site. In fact people used to find old and sometimes very valuable artefacts (old plates, bottles, and coffee cups etc.) from Victorian times. This man was digging holes and searching for remains of Victorian London.

Commission Cityscape
Idea of archaeological representation of the city.

These images remind me of archaeological sites, and some activities carried out by archaeologists. Idea of another world just beneath the surface Mysterious holes revealing remains of the city.

Cityscape - Contextual research

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Underworld

Story of the lost City of Atlantis

Cityscape - Contextual research

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Machu Picchu

The lost city of Inca, which was discovered in 1911 by the American explorer Hiram Bingham.

Cityscape - Contextual research

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Abandoned settlements around the world.

Often called ghost towns.
Reasons of falling into decay:
human-caused disaster, economic decline, civil war, and natural factors such as: earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In Europe Main reason of cities becoming abandoned was war and conflict, such as: Spanish Civil War or The World War II.

Cityscape - Contextual research

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Examples of few "ghost" towns/villages in Europe:

Auli in Switzerland Wilmarsdonk was a village in Belgium Imber - ghost town in Wiltshire in South West England Oradour-sur-Glane in France Pyramiden ghost town in Norway Belchite - a monument of Spanish Civil War

Cityscape - Contextual research

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After my research about deserted towns in Europe, where I found some information about the village of Imber, I was wondering if there are any more abandoned places within the UK.

Cityscape - Contextual research

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Examples of few "ghost" towns/villages in the UK:

Binnend in Fife - Scotland Mardale - Cumbria Derwent Village - Derbyshire Dylife - Wales Stanford - Kent Temperance Town - Wales Hallsands - village on the south coast of Devon Hampton-on-Sea - Herne Bay, Kent The village of Tyneham on the Isle of Purbeck

Commission Cityscape
After researching these places which supported my idea of a lost city, I was wondering if there are any photographers, whose work would relate to my concept.

I searched for an archaeological photographers and found a couple of names, which were vital for my project.

Cityscape Conceptual research

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Adam Stanford

archaeological photography of excavation areas

Cityscape Conceptual research

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Zissi Parras

documented the ancient record and process of excavation

Cityscape Conceptual research

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Hiroshi Sugimoto
Similar concept Traced beginning of human age via architecture Discovered that the great architecture survives process of blurred photography.

Cityscape Conceptual research

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Keith Arnatt

Invisible Hole Revealed by the Shadow of the Artist 1968 Idea of photographing something imperceptible.

Commission Cityscape
Shoot

Images from behind the scenes

Commission Cityscape Final Images

Commission Cityscape- Evalua?on

My Cityscape project relates to the history of the city and its representation in present day via its remains. It shows how important are works carried out by archaeologists for future generations. By the use of photography they are able to preserve the trace of old civilisations and document their existence. Context: My conceptual cityscape images fit in editorial field of photography and could be shown in magazines such as National Geographic. Photographic choices:
Use of standard lens to keep correct perspective Use of small aperture to keep most of the scene in focus. Shot from low angle to confuse the viewer in terms of scale. Tight framing to get rid of unnecessary surroundings.

Commission Cityscape- Evalua?on

Studies management:
More planning for the shoot to be able to chose the right time of a day for best lighting conditions. Spent more time on Landscape task. Spent more time for contextual research and less time for shooting. Need to reect on: More conceptual research to be able to capture these holes in more interesting way. (different lighting, camera positions/angles) Need to be more precise when printing final images to maintain consistent tones and colours in all images. Most signicant challenge:
To choose nal pieces for the series. I need to shoot more to have greater amount of images to choose from.

The Commission
Waste
In my Waste project I wanted to investigate the problem of illegal exportation of Electric and Electronic Waste to developing countries such as Ghana, India and China, and how this affects people and environment. In my photographs I portrayed representatives of these countries in the place, where process of recycling of WEEE is carried out in appropriate manner, without the risk of harm to human or environment.

The Commission Waste ini?al idea

The Commission
Waste Contextual research

E-waste  WEEE (Waste electric and electronic equipment)

E-waste is a popular, informal name for electronic products nearing the  end of their "useful life.
Electronic waste: Monitors 10%
TVs 10%
Computers, telephones, fax, printers, etc. 15%
DVD/VCR players, CD players, radios, Hi-Fi sets, etc. 15%
Electric waste:
Refrigerators 20%
Washing machines, dryers, air-conditioners, vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, toasters, irons, etc. 30%
As well as lighting equipment, toys, sports equipment, electric tools, medical instruments, etc.

The Commission Waste Contextual research

Facts about E-waste

Between 300-400 million electronic items dumped per year, and less than 20% is recycled. About 50 millions mobile phones are replaced worldwide a month, and only 10% are recycled. Between 20-50 million tons of e-waste generated every year.
E-waste now makes up five percent of all municipal solid waste worldwide. Recycling of computer monitors in the US is ten times more expensive than in China.

The Commission Waste Contextual research

E-waste contain:

1. Lead Present in batteries and CRT (cathode ray tube) screens.
2. Arsenic Present in LED lights.
3.SeleniumPhotocopiers and circuit boards.
4. Polybrominated ame retardants in plastic casing, cables and circuit boards
5.Antimony trioxideas ame retardant
6. Cadmium Present in CRT screens, rechargeable batteries, photocopiers
7. Chromium in steel as corrosion protection
8. Cobalt in steel for structure and magnetism
9. Mercury Present in Fluorescent lamps, LCD screens, alkaline batteries.
10. Lithium Largely present in Rechargeable Li-On batteries
11. Chlorouorocarbon (CFC) Present in Condensers, Insulation foam and cooling units

The Commission Waste Contextual research

Impact on Human

Impact on Environment

The Commission Waste Contextual research

The Commission Waste Contextual research

Planned obsolescence

The process of becoming obsolete - unfashionable or no longer usable. Business strategy in which the obsolescence of a product is planned and built into it from its conception. Common in the computer industry.

The Commission Waste Contextual research

WEEE Directive

The European Community directive onwaste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) which together with RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) Directive became European Law.

It aims to reduce theamountof electrical and electronic equipment being produced and to encourage everyone to reuse, recycle and recover it.

Basel Convention

It is an international agreement banning the shipment of e-waste from the developed to the developing world.

The Commission Waste Contextual research

Exporting E-waste

Many countries could not deal with greatamountof e-waste they generated and its hazardous nature.
It became a routine for developed countries toexport E-waste to developing countries, very often breaking the international law.

In the US it is declared that 50-80 % of the waste is being exported this way, which is illegal because US has not signed the Basel Convention.

The Commission Waste Contextual research

E-waste in Ghana

Burning electronic cables and other electrical components to melt the plastic and reclaim the copper wiring. This burning releases toxic chemicals into the environment.

The Commission Waste Contextual research

E-waste in India

Using very primitive tools, computer motherboard are being melted over open res and treated with acid in an electronic recycling yards in Delhi.

The Commission Waste Contextual research

E-waste in China

A migrant workers strip plastic from wires and use open acid baths to separate precious metals. No protection.16 hours shift/$5 a day.

The Commission Waste Contextual research

Electronic waste from the UK to Nigeria

Greenpeace website
Undercover operation, which exposed how electronic waste intended for recycling is being illegally exported from the UK to Nigeria disguised as "second-hand goods.

The Commission Waste Contextual research

Permanent Error
Pieter Hugo
Images by Pieter Hugo, taken during 2009 and 2010 at the Agbogbloshie Market in Accra, Ghana.

The Commission Waste Conceptual research

Andrew McConnell

The Commission Waste Conceptual research

Sophie Gerrard

The Commission Waste Conceptual research

Olivier Asselin

The Commission Waste Conceptual research

Film, Ethnography, And The Senses
THE CORPOREAL IMAGE
Containanthropological photographs by Jean Audema, most of them postcards of African, depicted the "native types"

The Commission Waste Conceptual research

Lewis Hine

Posture/Gaze/Composition

The Commission Waste Conceptual research

August Sander

Composition/Posture/Camera position

The Commission Waste Conceptual research

Zack Arias

Lighting

The Commission Waste Loca?on

Sweeep Kuusakoski in Sittingbourne,

One of the UK's leading dedicated WEEE processing facilities.

The Commission Waste Ligh?ng test

Underexposing ambient light

The Commission Waste Planing

List of equipment and possible setups

The Commission Waste The Shoot

Behind the scenes

The Commission Waste Final Images

The Commission Waste Evalua?on

My conceptual portraits of people representing three particular ethnic groups in industrial environment are depicting the problem of exportation of E-waste to developing countries. They are a kind of manifestation against consumerism and this illegal practice adopted by developed countries. Via posture and gaze my models are confronting the viewer and urge him to respond. These portraits show that process of recycling of E-waste can be done in a safe, appropriate manner.
Context:
I would place my photographs in a documentary context. (large prints in a gallery).
Photographic choices:
Shot from the distance to show the scale of E-waste.
Used standard lens to maintain correct perspective in all images.
Used dramatic lighting to underpin the idea of impact on human and environment.

The Commission Waste Evalua?on

Studies management:
Good time management in terms of research and shoot production
Enough research allowed me to develop idea.
I managed to organize models in outts for the shoot on time.
Need to reect on:
Printing a series of images to maintain consistent colour temperature in all images.
Most signicant challenge: Getting access to locations.
Organizing models and outts. Be more open and ask around.
Managing the shoot with 4 models (changing location, moving equipment). Should have an assistant.
Editorial choices for nal pieces (too many images). Be more precise when shooting.