Canon of the Rio Las Animas |
Name__Aidan Hale__ Block ___2nd__________
Weebly Address for the Report ___________________________________________ This project is worth 100 points. This project breaks down to 70 points for research and 30 for YOUR Images. Photography Research InformationChoose a Photographer to research and record the relevant information below. Be thorough. Be sure to record your 3 sources! No Wikipedia. You may use Wikipedia as a guide. Meaning only if you follow and source the original source. Complete both Part 1 and Part 2. PART 1 1. Personal Background: (5 sentences. Culture, nationality, schooling, important life events, etc.) Name of Artist: William Henry Jackson Dates of Artist’s Life: 1843-1942 Born in Keeseville, New York on April 4th 1843, William Henry Jackson was one of the most influential landscape photographers ever. The outcome of being born into a prominent family and at a perfect time a young William was quickly exposed to photography at an early age. After serving in the Civil War he would go on to start a portrait photography business but would leave soon after saying “Portrait photography never had a chance for me, so I sought my subjects from the housetops, and finally the hilltops and about the surrounding country….”. Jackson, following his urge for landscape photography, would begin traveling west taking photographs of the landscape on expeditions, surveys, and for companies across the west. Towards the end of his life Jackson remained an artist, running a commercial studio for 15 years, working for publishing companies around the country, and even painting for a number of companies. 2. Style: (5 sentences. What visual characteristics does this artist’s work possess? If you can compare it to a painting or art history style please do.) Over his photography career Jackson developed a style of photography that was extremely descriptive with an emphasis on the fine details of nature. Yet he made sure to capture the broad aspects such as a mountain range or a series of trees in the back of the image. Many of his photographs have amazing detail in the foreground but also an equally majestic but not too distracting background. For example many of his works revolve around his exploration of the west and being one of the first to document the western regions. This means his work often includes as much detail as possible with more than just one amazing part of an image. 3. Philosophy: (5 sentences. What were the major ideas behind this artist’s work? Where they personal, political, social, etc. What were they trying to “say” with their photographs?) Much of Jackson's work is from his exploration and expeditions to the west. He initially began with portrait photography but soon realized he wanted to pursue landscape photography. Partaking in many expeditions to the west it became apparent that Jackson wanted to be one of the first to document the natural landscape of the west. A big part of Jackson’s philosophy was his need to explore and get to the places never seen before, but this meant traveling unknown terrain. In turn many of his photographs portray his perseverance through a rough climate or terrain and his will to capture new images despite rough conditions is a huge part of his philosophy as a photographer. 4. Influences: (5 sentences. How has the photographer influenced you in your work or who were they influenced by?) While I was reading about Jackson one thing I thought was very intriguing was how he sought out new never before seen angles and images. One thing I always liked about photography is finding your own unique way of capturing an image. Even though many photographers will photograph the same subject such as a popular statue or park for example each image is often unique in it’s own way. Jacksons motivation to find angles and materials no one had seen before has influenced me to add my own personal touch on images to make them unique. This in turn has led me to find unique subjects, angles, or viewpoints when taking photographs of nature and landscapes. Part 2 For Part 2 of the Photographer’s Research, you will need to choose 3 images by the Photographer you can recreate. This is the purpose of the Project. You need to post the 3 images by your Photographer, their title and their source or link. Alongside or underneath the image by your Photographer you will post the 3 EMULATED or Imitated Images you created and edited. 5. Compare and Contrast: You will need to compare and contrast your final 3 images with the 3 images you choose by your photographer. Write about each piece (3 sentences.) Rio Grande Railway When I started researching my artist I knew my photos would not be exact replicas because of the difference in landscape so for this photo I tried to mimic as much as possible. I decided to focus on the railway in this photo and use it to show the depth of the photo similarly to the original. I also wanted the trees in the background of the original to be in an aspect in mine so I made sure to capture the trees surrounding the railroad in a wider angle as well as the open sky being a large part of both images. Canon of the Rio Las Animas In this image my focus was not only on the railway this time but I also wanted to capture the river side by side with the tracks. For this photo I definitely had some trouble finding a place where the river and railroad were parallel and close enough. I made sure to crop the image in photoshop to emphasize the river a little more and I made it black and white so there is no color. Unknown For my last photo I wanted to focus on the bridge and the river flowing under it as well, so I made sure to have a river flowing through the base of the bridge. I also wanted to make sure the foreground was descriptive with the surrounding tree branches on the river bank similar to the trees and rocks of the river bank on the original. Finally in my image I wanted to make sure behind the bridge in the background you could see some parts of the trees and forest similar to the original’s background with layers of trees leading to the sky. 6. Personal Artist Statement: Your images should tell a story. In 5 sentences tell me about your images. Use Visual Literacy vocabulary to enhance your report. Overall I enjoyed trying to mimic these images. At the start I soon realized trying to perfectly or even come close to recreating any of Jackson’s images would be a challenge. A lot of his time was spent in the west which has significantly different landscapes then Ann Arbor, so instead I chose to find similar subjects in Ann Arbor such as the railroad running along the river in “Canon of the Rio Las Animas”. In the first image I wanted to similarly capture the broad landscape but most importantly focus on recreating the depth created by the railroad tracks. In my second and third images I chose to focus on the railroad + river aspect, but also include certain elements such as the different elevation levels in the third image with the river, bridge, and forest/sky all at different levels in the photo and the river flowing and moving right along with the railroad in the second image. 7. Resources: Cannot be Wikipedia. You need to include where you found the information about your artist, provide a link and/or article title. |