Task 4. How visual language communicates ideas and meaning.

This task is about comparing and describing the different ways which photographers express ideas through image technique in various types of photography. Although photography is often seen as one singular art form, the many forms of the art convey very different ideas.
Landscape- Fine art
Dan Holdsworth
Holdsworth has always has a fascination with space and the unknown planets, which is clearly communicated in his night shots or 'blackouts'. He uses traditional photographic techniques to create eerie scenes of textures and colours with a familiarity to an apocalyptic world. His shots of the Northern lights , photographed with long exposures up to four hours, have a supernatural glow, making the surrounding mountains and rivers appear alien and atomic. I think with these images, Holsworth was trying to communicate a secret and unknown world that the night can create, comparing it to space whilst giving the viewer a sense of escapism, and letting them realize at the same time that the world they live in is as fascinating as other planets.

Untitled 8 (Hyperbolae)

Another example of his work using night and similar concepts is the image entitled Videmanette 01. Looking at the image, almost two-thirds of the image is covered in deep dark sky, and by contrast, running across the bottom of the image is a bright yellow. This appears to be illuminated by artificial light, behind the camera. This forms an idea of something that is about the happen or has happened, which in my interpretation could be and artificial sunset/rise, recreated in a new artificial world which is a recreation of our own. This relates back to the alien idea of the before image. I think that the alien and space idea is a recurring theme in his images and the meaning he is trying to communicate is that the fascination of space was created on earth by humans and their curiosity. 

Ansel Adams

Adams images are famous for there sharpness, clarity and wide depth of field. He was a strong believer that photographs should capture real life, things that other art forms often could not. The underlying message he tried to convey was the 'intimate secrets of nature have been presented as they really are.' This means that the photographs capture real life nature, such as raindrops on grass and real life sharpness and depth of field. He was also well known for cleverly using filters, lenses and film, for his ability to extract 11 tones of gray from reality. 

The image below is from a collection of images of a nature reserve in America. The image has an intensity that comes from the mountains in the background and curved river coming into the foreground, with makes the image seem hard but also gives it a journey and a path. The image is unusual, as it shows soft tones in the background. The composition is very well planned and balanced, the exposure is perfect. I think with this image and many of his others, the artist was trying to portray the freeness and open space of nature, were there are no paths or walkways to guide you. I think he was trying to show how the river looks like a road, and how roads have taken the place of landscapes such as this.

Portrait-commercial

Robbie cooper.

Cooper's most famous images are those of people distracted, such as the series he did of children playing video games. As well as images, he uses moving image to capture responses from the viewer, as the camera may be viewed as too distracting.

His images are extremely high quality, he also uses studio lights and a studio backdrop. I think while using the high quality he was trying to create a recurring theme with the video games, connecting the camera quality to the quality of the graphics in the video games.

I think that he most wanted to capture the faces of concentration created by the children, sometimes viewed as anger or frustration. 

He used an Errol Morris technique of filming that allowed to subject to stare straight into the camera's lens wile being distracted by the video game.

Bill Brandt

Brandt was most famous for creating abstracts out of the human form using high quality, well lit and sharp images in grainy black and white.

The image shown below glows with sudden contrasts of gleaming light and rich blacks and grays. In the nude portrait images, his subjects are blank faced, and the images have asymmetrical compositions and a mixture of solid objects and spooky emptiness. I think these images express Brandt's personal feelings, he was often described as a quiet man, who was always paranoid and suspicious. I think his photographs was a way of releasing feelings of loneliness that he felt through-out his life.

Journalistic

James Nachtwey

Using grainy, black and white images, Nachtwey produces some of the most influencial and discturbing war photographs ever. He uses personal connections to make the viewer sympathize with the particular case. His goal is to bear witness, because somebody must, and his pictures, devised to infuriate and move people to action, are about us and our concern or lack of it. 

His main idea is to not show an unrealistic amount of suffering or to make the viewer feel uncomfortable, but to make them see reality.

In comparison to other black and white photographers such as Bill Brandt, Natchtwey uses a shallow depth of field and shadows to show reality in similar ways.