Introduction To Man & Nature

Introduction - Man & Nature

This is an introduction to my new topic of Man & Nature. This post will feature an insight into why I chose the topic and what will be incorporated into my forthcoming posts.

Mind map

As a topic to study, I decided to branch off from my initial topic of General Landscapes and specialise in a certain aspect of this more general heading. I thought that it would be better to condense my ideas and focus on a particular point in such a large field as landscapes are used in many different ways throughout photography.

At first, I wanted to mainly lean towards the ideas of pollution and the effects of humans on the natural environment. (Man 'V' Nature) This then stemmed to man's presence within the natural environment and how we interact within nature so the title of my topic was amended to Man & Nature.  I began looking at man and man made objects within a natural backdrop and discovered some very interesting themes in which to delve into and research.

Artist's Photographs

 

My first artist image captured my topic from an interesting perspective, showing both a man made item and also something similar but within a nature format. The tree is of a similar height to the radio mast and shows a similar form, which gave an interesting contrast. I liked this image and began to look at other natural forms and how we see similar shapes within our human environment.

The image above portrays another way man affects nature.  The graffiti on the brick wall is a stark contrast to the soft petals of the flower.  This use of textural contrast was again very interesting. I explored this theme a little further by trying to photograph some interesting Graffiti and Floral images which I could perhaps merge in some way using Photoshop. 
I chose to feature this particular image because it shows the impact man has WITHIN nature. This sways away from my initial idea but still has a strong bond to my original theme.  With this in mind I began to look around me noticing man made structures places within a natural environment, especially if there was a strong contrast in texture, colour of shape. I found that when I looked around me, the natural lansdscape was littered with objects that were either discarded by man or left by man to return to later. Often the contrast of shape and texture was very interesting and I began to notice more of man's influence within the landscape.

For this image i liked how the artist had used "man" within nature to create an almost optical illusion. They could have created this image either using Photoshop, to blend the tree bark on to her back. Or on the other hand the artist could have actually hand painted what they wanted on to the model.
This double exposure technique really interested me and I thought that the effect was subtle but gave a dramatic effect.  I like the use of black and white which almost brought more texture to the shot, however, I think that I will also explore the use of colour when using double exposure as this may also enhance the effect.

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