Figure In Landscape photography

‘Figure in Landscape’ photography encompasses two things, Figure. & Landscape. Figure includes shape, form, stature, drawing or representation & Landscape is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition, put these two together & you have Figure in Landscape photography;  ‘a shape, form, stature, drawing or representation within a natural scenery.’ In the context of this photography assignment, due to artist models photos, the figure is the human body.  

Photographers either choose to have figures contrasting/conflicting with the environment or molding/intertwined with the environment.  Both forms are dramatic & emphasize either how the human body and natural landscape relate or how the human body and natural landscape have no relationship with each other at all.

International Contemporary Photographer:

Derek Langley Bio

Born in 1955, Langley has been passionate about taking photographs, especially black and white photographs, since the age of about twelve when he first printed his own photographs. Early on he decided that photography would lose its magic if done professionally, so he opted for a degree in Theoretical Physics, moved to Cambridge and worked in computing for some fifteen years, keeping photography as a hobby.He had no intentions of trying to sell his photographs. This came later, as a consequence of a tragic event; the death of his baby son in 1984. To raise money for research into cot death, his wife began to sell needlepoint pictures in local craft-markets, and he added a few of his photographs to her stall. To his surprise, people bought them, so he added more. With the passing years, both the photograph collection and the craft-business grew and grew, until in 1991, Langley finally let go of the computing job to give himself more time for his growing family, and for photography. 
 


Midsummer Common  1999                       Jesus green Cambridge 1982
 
Traditional Artist Influences:

Joseph Mallord William Turner (JMW Turner)
(23rd April 1775 – 19th December 1851)

Turner was born in, London, England. His father, William Gay, was a barber and wigmaker. His mother, Mary Marshall, became increasingly mentally unstable, possibly due in part to the early death of Turner's younger sister,  and  later in 1804, died, after having been committed into a mental asylum.Possibly due to the load placed on the family by these problems, the young Turner was sent to stay with his maternal uncle in Brentford in 1785, which was then a small town west of London on the banks of the River Thames. It was here that he first expressed an interest in painting. By this time he had created many drawings, which his father exhibited in his shop window.

JMW Turner
Mortlake Terrace

Robert Frank

Born November 9, 1924, in Zürich, Switzerland, Frank was born to a wealthy Jewish family. His mother, Rosa, was Swiss, but his father, Hermann, had become stateless after World War I and had to apply for the Swiss citizenship of Frank and his older brother. Though Frank and his family remained safe in Switzerland during World War II, the threat of Nazism nonetheless affected his understanding of oppression. He turned to photography, in part, as a means to escape the confines of his business-oriented family and home, and trained under a few photographers and graphic designers before he created his first hand-made book of photographs.



Robert Frank
City of London
1951

Artist Analysis
Derek Langley: Robert Frank & JMW Turner

How have they been Influenced?

Robert Frank & Derek Langley’s photographs have strong likeness by the figures fading into the fog & the lines/direction. Both use the fog to represent different aspects, and both have figures following a path. Each photo also has aspects which are emphasized by being in focus.

                                                                        

JMW Turner & Langley’s images have very obvious similarities. Yet again there is a path, endless in both images and both have figures merely outlined in the landscape. Sepia tone in Langley’s photo further highlights that Turner has had a big influence on him. The reflections on the water also replicate the shadows in Turner’s photo.


     

 








 New Zealand Contemporary Photographer:

Victoria Ginn

Victoria Ginn is a photographer and author whose art depicts aspects of self within the intertwined contexts of landscape and culture. Her various works lead one through selected areas of the world and into the colours and rhythms of humanity—emotion, imagination and identity.Ginn’s photographs have been exhibited at the Museum for the Performing Arts, New York, and are represented in the permanent collections of the George Pompidou Art Museum, Paris and art institutes in New Zealand (Te Papa, Dunedin Art Gallery, Dowse Art Museum).Ginn’s specialty is natural light photography.

      

High tide                                                   First Light
Bethells Beach                                          Pauahatanui
2005                                                         2005
 
Contemporary Artist Emulation



Location: Bombay Hills
Model: Mary
Time: Near Sunset

While emulating my contemporary artist I was trying to have the figure working with the landscape & I was making sure I had the foreground occupied with the grass, like Ginn’s photo. Also, arm arrangement was essential in capturing the image. In hindsight, some criticisms are: not having the figure on the correct angle, not fully utilizing the costume (the white & blue clothes detract from the image) & not waiting a bit longer to have the sunset hitting the hills in the background. Apart from that, I am pleased with my emulation and managed to get the main features of the photo.

Traditional Artist Influences for NZ Photographer:

Henri Cartier-Bresson
(August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004)

Born in France, eldest of five children. His father was a wealthy textile manufacturer whose Cartier-Bresson thread was a staple of French sewing kits. His mother's family were cotton merchants and landowners from Normandy. As a young boy, Cartier-Bresson owned a Box Brownie, using it for taking holiday snapshots; he later experimented with a 3×4 inch view camera. His father assumed that his son would take up the family business, but Henri was headstrong and was appalled by this prospect.

Henri Cartier Bresson
Monument to the first governor General of Indochina, destroyed by the Germans, Martigues, France, 1932

Traditional Artist Emulation

Location: Papakura
Time: Afternoon
While replicating my traditional artist my main thought was to have the statue running the length of the image. Due to not finding any buildings near a statue, I used a tree, and looking at the photo I think, this soldier once travelled with a team, now he is a lone soldier standing by a palm tree, with only each other to keep company.

Yousuf Karsh
(December 23rd 1908 – July 13th 2002)

Yousuf Karsh was born in Mardin, a city in the eastern Ottoma Empire. He grew up during the Armenian Genocide where he wrote, "I saw relatives massacred; my sister died of starvation as we were driven from village to village." At the age of 14, he fled with his family to Syria to escape persecution. Two years later, his parents sent Yousuf to live with his uncle George Nakash, a photographer in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Karsh briefly attended school there and assisted in his uncle’s studio. Nakash saw great potential in his nephew and in 1928 arranged for Karsh to apprentice with portrait photographer John Garo in the United States.



Yousuf Karsh                       Yousuf Karsh                Yousuf Karsh 
Pablo Picasso                       Romeo and Juliet            Madge MacBeth
 1954                                    1933                                 1936
 


Francesca Woodman
(1958 – 1981)

Francesca Woodman was born April 3, 1958, in Denver, Colorado, to well-known artists George Woodman and Betty Woodman. Through 1975, she spent summers with her family in Italy. As she spoke fluent Italian, she was able to befriend Italian intellectuals and artists. She sent portfolios of her work to fashion photographers, but "her solicitations did not lead anywhere." In summer 1980 she was an artist-in-residence at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Francesca Woodman
Untitled
Macdowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire, 1980


Artist Analysis
Victoria Ginn: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Yousuf Karsh, Francesca Woodman
        

Henri Cartier-Bresson showed Ginn the possibilities of photography. The alikeness in these photos is having a figure run the length of the image, therefore going with the landscape. The lines in the background gives the viewer something to follow and the eye easily slips off the figure and onto the surrounding landscape.



 


 

Francesca Woodman went further and taught Ginn a combination of the two; showing a tasteful art form of this genre. The similarities again come from the posing, especially the use of the arm extended, working in the landscape. Now although not directly mentioned as an influence both artists work are extremely similar.

                                                        

Yousuf Karsh taught Ginn how to capture figures with an artistic eye & further developed ideas she got from Bresson. The first two images of Karsh’s show similar posing/positioning that work with the landscape and all else that is going on. Also Ginn’s first photo uses different lighting on each figure; Karsh was considered a master of studio lights so this practice may have stemmed from inspiration from Karsh; Ginn's speciality is natural light. The third image of Karsh’s & Ginns image both have a figure slotted into their surroundings with ease. The impact Karsh left is evident with the figures placed so effortlessly & with an eye for detail/art.

 



 





























Own Photo



Location: Swamp
Time: Sunset

With my own photo I was trying to keep in mind the principles from my artists work. First of all, with the clothing of the figure, I was trying to have it harmonizing with the swamp, Green on top but slowly progressing to the dark swampy depths. Next, I tried to light the figure the same way the light hits the right tree side, this is seen on the figures extended leg. When practicing with the camera I learnt that an uninteresting foreground seriously detracts from the photo so the stump right in front of the camera keeps the foreground occupied. Finally, with the figure itself I tried slotting it in, with the left leg of the figure acting as a stray branch.