Joe Cornish

Joe Cornish,  born in Exeter, 1958.  He studied art at Reading University, where he first became interested in photography.  He graduated in 1980 and worked as an assistant for four years in London and Washington DC.

In 1986 his early travel and landscape photography was accepted into Charlie Waite's photolibrary, Landscape Only.   From 1986 to 1995 Joe was responsible for either all or the majority of the photography in more than thirty travel books; these years were the proving ground for the landscape work that was to follow.

In 1991 he went to Alaska with Raleigh International as expedition photographer. Alaska inspired Joe's commitment to wild places and wilderness. He undertook his first job for the National Trust in 1990 and he continues to work freelance for them. Joe believes photography plays a vital role as an advocate for environmental protection.

Joe has contributed to and published many books over his long career and The Joe Cornish North Allerton gallery holds a permanent exhibition of Joe's work, as well as his print archive.

In 2006 Amateur Photographer honoured him with their annual Power of Photography award, and in 2008 he was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.



A photograph from the 'Water and Stone: Essence of Yorkshire' series



Bamburgh Castle at nightfall

I find the following quote from Joe's website very inspiring:

"To my way of thinking, photography and landscape matter much more than I do. I want my work to value, honour and connect with landscape; I do not want it to draw attention to me personally. But therein lies a contradiction, for without the aesthetic signature of an individual vision, photographs are rarely compelling. I remain convinced that themes from nature are never exhausted. Continuing to develop a language of light and form that illuminates the subject without drawing too much attention to me, the photographer, remains at the heart of my mission"

The Different Ways To Present My Work

So, after accepting that a worldwide billboard campaign is probably not that realistic, I need to consider the other options that are available and decide which one will best suit my images and my budget!  But, before making my work availble to the masses, it's likely that I will need to carry out some editing ....

Things to consider when editing your images:

Cropping:

Cropping can be used to change the size/shape of an image, i.e. crop to a square.  It can also be used to remove dead/wasted space and to focus on the 'subject'.

Colour/Tone

As examples; consider if the image would work better in black and white or sepia, or alter the levels to give the image a 'warm' effect or the opposite and 'cool' down the tones.

Lighten/Darken

Alter the image by lightening or darkening as appropriate.  If the image is too bright then darken it slightly or if it's too dark, maybe if you didn't get the light quite right then lighten it up a little.

Sharpen

Sharpen up an image to create more definition if appropriate.

There are numerous options available to us for fine tuning an image, some software is free, like Picassa for example, others are more costly like Photoshop.  Even the free sofware like Picassa enables you to crop, sharpen, convert to black and white, alter the colour levels, apply a soft focus etc. etc.

Once you are happy with your edited images the following presentation options are among the many available to you:

Portfolio

If I chose this method then I would include more images, 6 isn’t enough for a portfolio, Maybe 15 – 20 images with the strongest image at the back as that’s the one that will be remembered.  You can purchase portfolio cases in various sizes, the most common being A3, A2 and A1.

Boxed Prints

Not a fan of this idea, the images are not displayed, more ‘stored’ and would have to be removed from the box and then displayed,

Book

There are numerous websites that allow you to create a photo-book.  I’ve made several myself using www.kodakgallery.co.uk and in my opinion they are a great replacement for a traditional photo album.  Most specify a minimum number of pages i.e 20, which gives you 40 actual pages to fill so number of images would have to be vastly increased.  They are available in a variety of sizes and approximate cost is as follows: 

7" x 5", min 14 pages, soft cover - £7.99

9.5" x 8", min 20 pages, soft cover - £15.99

10.25" x 9", min 20 pages, hard cover - £19.99

14" X 12", min 20 pages, hard cover - 39.99 

Framed Prints

A great way to display photographs, numerous options available regarding frames, borders and sizes, so easy to find something to show off your image perfectly.

Gallery

Rent some gallery space - how exciting!  This, I imagine would be the choice of most people, given the opportunity, the perfect showcase for your work, cost prohibitive though.  A fabulous platform with lots of options regarding size and display.

Postcards

A very cool idea and I like it but don’t think it would suit my images due to the obvious size issue.

Prints

A straight-forward print!  Numerous sizes and paper types available from a regular 5" x 7" (or even smaller if required) to A0 and everything inbetween.  As a an example, again using Kodak Gallery the following prices apply:

Prints size	Price each
5 x 7"	£0.19
6 x 8"	£0.39
8 x 10"	£1.19
8 x 12"	£1.29

Poster size	Price each
12 x 18"	£2.99
16 x 24"	£9.99
20 x 30"	£14.99

Website

Creating a website to display your work is a great way to make your images available to the world!  There are many diy 'create your own website' packages, some are even free.  It would also be possible to add a 'shopping basket' to people could purchase your work. 

Blog

Similar to a website, but more of an 'informal' method, almost like an online diary but like a website makes your work available to the world!  Anyone can set up a blog providing they have access to the internet, creating a blog is usually free of charge.

Giles Norman

Giles Norman born in 1961, to Belgian and English parents,  lives in Kinsale, County Cork  where he has been since 1976.  

A chance request to photograph a school project  provided him with his first opportunity to use a camera, this sparked an interest and he received his first camera for his 18th birthday. By 1981 he had begun creating his first portfolios.

He quickly developing his own style of black and white photography and also began to successfully sell his photographs to craft shops around Ireland. As demand increased he rented darkroom space in kinsale, where a small window to the street meant a steady stream of visitors. The obvious popularity convinced him to open his first black and white photography gallery.

The gallery became successful and gained Giles recognition as one of Ireland’s leading black and white photographers.  He returned many times to the West of Ireland photographing the Aran islands, Clare and Galway.

He expanded his subject matter visiting Paris,  Venice and Florence.  He moved to larger premises in 1992, these premises are now home to the complete black and white portfolios of Giles Norman.

Although Giles spends much of his time in Kinsale he also finds time to add to his portfolios, more recently launched collections include Beara, New York and Dingle.

Giles had always wanted to visit Yosemite National Park and follow in the footsteps of Ansel Adams.  This dream came true in 2004 and gave him the opportunity to created his first American portfolio.  See below two examples taken from this collection:

Over the last number of years giles Normans work has concentrated on what he calls ‘pure landscape’, finding wild and remote places and photographing only what nature has laid down - keeping man-made intrusions to a minimum.  He used a Nikon F80 and a Hasselblad X-pan until 2006 and now uses a D300

How Best to Present My Work ......

There are several ways in which I could present my final images.  However, as the images I have chosen for my final 6 are all far-reaching landscapes I feel they are better suited to something on a larger scale to get a feeling for what & where they are and to show them at their best.

If every option were available to me, with no restriction on budget or location; I would love to have them displayed on billboards in city centres or industrial areas.  However, that’s not a realistic scenario at this stage (or probably ever) but this is what it might look like if it were!

Obviously I love this!  The bigger the better .......  However, for a full on billboard campaign lasting two weeks I will need approx £500k!  Or for a static billboard on a trailer about £995 per month, plus printing costs!  I shall discuss the more realistic presentation options in my next post.

John Goto

John Goto born 1949, Stockport, England.  John studied fine art at St Martin's School of Art, London in the late 1960's where he developed an interest in european cinema and literature which in turn led him to the medium of photography.

In the 1980's he starting combining painting and drawing with photography which laid the groundwork for his later works with digital manipulation.  John Goto is recognized internationally as a leading practitioner in the field of photo-digital art. Since 1992 he has used digital technology to reflect on European history and contemporary social and political events.

His series entitled 'New World Circus' depicts bizarre circus scenes as a representation of the current (then) situation in Iraq and the 'New World Order' that Blair and Bush foolishly hoped would prevail in Iraq and beyond. The acts themselves are based on real circus routines and Goto himself plays the brash, red coated and moustached ringmaster and accompanying him are family, friends and neighbours, playing the parts of circus characters.   

New World Circus Series: Statue Entrée, 2006

Another series entitled 'Floodscapes' came about through a partnership between the Environment Agency’s ‘Floodscape’ project, the University of Derby and John Goto.  This project aims to explore the use of art as a means of imaginatively engaging the public with the aesthetics of landscape and the issues and options involved in managing floods.



Floodscapes series: Polyphemus on the Thames Barrier, 2006

John Goto's work is not for me, although I can appreciate his talent and think the message behind is work is a powerful one, particularly the New World Circus series, it's not something I personally enjoy.

 

John Goto is currently Senior Lecturer in Photography at the University of Derby .... he's just down the road!

Fantasy Landscape Hell! :-o

Ever the drama queen, I'm finding it almost impossible to create any fantasy landscape that I'm happy with.  I've tried so many things / themes and nothing is quite right, i feel that i'm just missing the mark every time.  I'm totally stuck!  Below are a some of my recent attempts which I shall discuss with Marie on Wednesday, hopefully by then i'll have had a flash of inspiration (another one) and have it sorted.  More likely i'll just cry :oD

Exhibit A!  using magnetic lasso, then copy and paste one side of high street on to woodland scene. I then used free transform to re-size and then pasted again and used free transform to invert horizontally and re-size for the other side.  I then used the blur tool to soften the edges before flattening the image and saving it as a jpeg.  I quite like this but think there's something missing ...... and I can't quite put my finger on it .....

Exhibit B!  Using magnetic lasso I cut and paste the cemetary scene on to the fab sky scene, then to cover up a random woman on a bench spoiling the picture I added the pub, using the same methods.  I then used the art history brush and the blur tool before flattening the image and saving it as a jpeg.  Now,  I love the cemetary and the sky but the pub makes it look all wrong, however, random woman on a bench also spoils the scene .......

Exhibit C!  I really like the multiply layer function and having used it previously (see much earlier post) decided to revert back to this in the hope of more success.  Basically it's the cemetary scene with a woodland scene, duplicate layers created, cemetary scene moved on to woodland scene and layers multiplied, I experimented with the opacity as it the image was quite dark towards the bottom third, this is set to 68%.  I then flattened the image and saved it as a jpeg.  I prefer this to the image before it but still not entirely happy!

Exhibit D!  Out of all the attempts this is my favourite and I think most successful (others may not agree)  I've used the woodland scene from the first image and a high street scene. After creating duplicate layers for both images, i've moved the woodland scene on to the high street scene.  Then, using the layer options to multiply and changed the opacity to 73%.  I love the trees on the buildings and the redness of the leaves on the street.  If this is a winner then I just need another 3 - fabulous!

Helen Saunders

Helen Saunders born 1986, Derby, England.  Helen graduated with a first class honours degree in Fine Art from Loughborough School of Art and Design in 2008.  She has been a finalist in the DLA Piper graduate award and selected for UK Young Artist. She has also been commissioned to create several pieces in Leicestershire.

Described as a 'digital photography and photoshop virtuoso',  her solo exhibition 'Constructed Landscapes' uses photography to transform everyday but often unnoticed surroundings such as building yards and wasteland in to dreamlike landscapes, blurring the boundaries between fantasy and reality. 

Helen's focus is on our ever-changing environment often using images from 'the edge' of regular day-to-day life, for examle old railways and canals and where often new buildings sit alongside old revealing how a particular area is changing or losing it's identity.

Helen explores landscapes from around the UK but particularly the Midlands.

The images below are from her 'Constructed Landscapes' set.

I like Helen's work, it's extremely clever and an inspiring method of how to send a message.  It's clear that her passion is for our ever-evolving environment and man's often negative impact on the landscape. 

Michael Kenna

Michael Kenna, born in 1953, Widnes, England.  One of five children, from a working class Irish-Catholic family, his early ambition was to join the priesthood.  However, a love of the arts lead him to the Banbury School of Art where he studied painting and then photography. He later attended the London College of Printing and starting working as a photographer and artist.   He realised that there wasn’t much chance of making a living as a painter living in England so studied photography in part because he knew he could at least attempt to make a living doing commercial work

He moved to San Francisco in 1977 and this has remained his home ever since.

Michael Kenna's work is often described as 'engimatic, graceful and hauntingly beautiful' much like the Japanese landscape that he first visited in 1987, he has since travelled extensively, all over the country constantly taking photographs, 95 of which make up the book 'Japan'.

Michael constructs his work over long-term projects which may require him to go back to places he already knows and has photographed many times, exploring them over and over again.
“I like to be working on three or four projects at once, and even when these projects are supposedly finished I often continue working on them indefinitely.” His projects can take as long  as seven or eight years to complete. His study of concentration camps, which he donated to France took over ten years and led him to the sites of all the Nazi camps still remaining.

Michael Kenna's work presents the landscape devoid of human figures. Yet, the trace of a human presence is there, in what we leave behind.  His photographs are often taken at dawn or during the night, with long exposures of up to 10 hours. 

Pier Remains, Bognor Regnis, Sussex, England, 1990

Rock Formations, Study 3, Yoichi, Hokkaido, Japan, 2004

Both of the images above are great examples of the 'hauntingly beautiful' that is often used to describe Michael Kenna's work.

Longshaw ...... no rain

Today is the last day of my Christmas holiday, back to work tomorrow :o(  Determined to make the most of it, coupled with the fact it had finally stopped raining, I headed out to the Longshaw Estate near Sheffield to see what I could see! A dry day with a fairly blue sky and what felt like 90mph winds (I never exaggerate).  Here are a selection of the images I managed to capture:

1. shutter 1/100, f/8, iso 100



2. shutter 1/100, f/6.3, iso 100




3. shutter 1/80, f/10, iso 100




4. shutter 1/100, f/9, iso 100




5. shutter 1/125, f/10, iso 100


And the same images converted to black and white .....

These images work better in black and white than the Dartmoor images, I think this is because there is more detail to the foreground so you don't lose the depth.  However, I prefer the colour images, again i'm drawn to the range of strong colours and depth.  Although they are not as desolate as the Dartmoor images, I still feel they convey a sense of isolation & remoteness, which for some bizarre reason I rather like! 

Dartmoor in the rain .....

As i was staying in Plymouth to celebrate new year, I thought i'd take advantage of the location and head to Dartmoor to try and capture some images suitable for my final 6!  What I didn't bank on was the hideous weather, the only time it didn't rain was when I was asleep!  We're not talking just a 'light shower' either, it absolutely threw it down the entire time.

Nevertheless I did drive out on to the moor and even got out of my car on a couple of occasions to brave the elements.  I'd made sure my battery was fully charged and that my memory card was empty before I'd left for my trip so I knew I was good to go.

Here are a few of the images I took ....



1. Shutter 1/100, f/5.6, iso 100



2. Shutter 1/160, f/5.6, iso 100



3. Shutter 1/60, f/7.1, iso 100

4. Shutter 1/180, f/5.6, iso 100

I have converted them all into black and white .......

Out of the 4 images above, numbers 1 & 2 are the ones I really like, I like the depth, the colours and the road in the distance that draws you into the image.  All of them give a sense of how Dartmoor was on that particular day, cold, bleak and almost desolate.
I feel image 2 works best in black and white, not convinced that black and white does much for these images, I think they lose some depth and atmosphere ......

John Baldessari

John Baldessari born 1931, California. 

John received a B.A. at San Diego State College in 1953 and attended the University of California at Berkeley and at Los Angeles before receiving a master's degree from San Diego State College in 1957. He originally intended to be an art critic, but became a central figure in the growth of Los Angeles as a major art centre.

Baldessari taught at the California Institute of the Visual Arts (CalArts) in Valencia from 1970 to 1990. Following this he joined the art faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles.

His earlier works involved  paintings on canvas  with handwritten phrases, know as 'phototext canvas'  Many of these were satirical in nature, some of his most famous works however, came from his colorful and fun work where he circled out faces. About one of his most famous photos, he says “I’m eliminating everything that probably is the most interesting. I’m eliminating Stonehenge. I’m eliminating their faces. All you’re getting to see is their clothing.”

John Baldessari, “Stonehenge"

Commenting on another of his most famous works he says, "The guitar does figure into the history of art … usually with a bottle of wine, a newspaper, and a loaf of bread.”

John Baldessari "Person with a guitar"

John's career has spanned five decades and his work has been featured in more than 120 solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe and in over 300 group exhibitions. His projects include artist books, videos, films, billboards and public works.  He currently lives and works in Santa Monica, California

I like the 'fun' aspect of John Baldessari's work, often turning a potentially dull/ordinary photograph into something more interesting & enjoyable.

Fox Talbot

William Henry Fox Talbot (more commonly referred to as Fox Talbot), born 1800 in Dorset, England to a wealthy family.  He was an eager student but said to be painfully shy to the point of being reclusive.  Fox went on to attend Cambridge university and was also elected a member of parliament in 1833. 

Known today as a pioneer of photography, it was a holiday in Lake Como, that prompted him to ‘dream up a new machine with light-sensitive paper’ that would sketch the scenary for him as he was increasingly frustrated with his attempts to sketch.

Thomas Wedgwood had already made photograms - but these faded quickly.  In 1827, Joseph Nicéphore de Niepce had produced pictures on bitumen, and in January 1839, Louis Daguerre displayed his 'Daguerreotypes' - pictures on silver plates  Three weeks later, Fox Talbot reported his 'art of photogenic drawing' to the Royal Society. His process based the prints on paper that had been made light sensitive, rather than bitumen or copper-paper.

Fox Talbot went on to develop the three primary elements of photography: developing, fixing, and printing. He discovered by accident that there was an image after a very short exposure. and that he could chemically develop it into a  negative. The image on this negative was then fixed with a chemical solution. With the negative image, Fox realised he could use the negative for repeat printing and therefore could make any number of positive prints, unlike the Daguerreotypes. He named the process the 'calotype' and patented it 1841. The following year was rewarded with a medal from the Royal Society for his work.

Fox was also a renowned mathematician, an astronomer and archaeologist, He died on 11 September 1877

Window in the South Gallery of Lacock Abbey
Made from the oldest photographic negative in existence 1835

Positive & Negative - Oak Tree 1842



The Fox Talbot Museum located in his former home, Lacock Abbey is owned and run by the National Trust.  The 'Talbot Collection' containing over 4,000 photographs and more than 10,000 letters and other correspondence between Talbot and his family and friends is housed by the British Library after being generously donated by the 'Talbot Descendants'.