Though not technically a photographic session, the third element of my photographic practice used the images produced Underwater and at the city centre to create digitally altered scenes presenting a possible future for Auckland.
The images added together show Auckland city sights as well as architecture symbolising the Causes of Climate Change merged with underwater footage to create a city surrounded by waters and rising sea levels.
To create the digital layerings I added two or three Images together, changing the presentation mode and order of them depending on the desired effect. Generally the bottom image will be most visible eg. when the top layer image is set on a soft lighting mode.
Using the mask tool it is then possible to add or hide elements from each layer to create or more interesting composition.
While creating these images I often thought about Richard Mosses work for 'The Enclave'. He criticised documentary photography as it only shows visible conflicts, if there is more to a story that can't be captured right in front of the lens, it will never be seen in a documentary. For this reason he saw his work for 'the Enclave' as apart of a larger fine art piece, being presented as a multimedia art work at Venice Biennale 2013.
Similar to R. Mosses work, my photographic practice focuses on the hidden conflicts, in particular the connections of different causes and their effects on climate change.
Although not immediately visible, CO2 emission rises especially regarding the transport industry as well as electricity and heat generation ,are the biggest factors causing the environmental changes the world is experiencing recently. Fine Art photography and visual communications generally offer up a way to make these connections visible in art rather than charts and statistics.
Visualising science has been a key use of art for centuries and my research has thought me how important science is as research for the arts and simultaneously how much science has to rely on art to be understood by society.
Using the idea of Beauty to convey a tragic reality, I'm working on a project to educate as well as raise attention for environmental changes that are easier to overlook than to commit to general behaviour changes for. To gain attention my images will look beautiful in colouring and composition at a glance, but similar to S. Salgado in 'Genesis' it is the story and not the image that will shock the audience. Imagining ones personal future while exploring the many facets of the images will hopefully have the desire effect and be the wake-up call society needs to battle climate change.
Bibliography:
Artsy Editors (2013) Interview: Richard Mosse on his Moving Images of Congolese Rebels. artsy.net 30 May 2013 Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/editorial-interview-richard-mosse-on-his-moving-images [Accessed on 30 March 2019]
BJP (2014) Richard Mosse wins Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014. British Journal of Photography. 12 May 2014. Available at: https://www.bjp-online.com/2014/05/richard-mosse-wins-deutsche-borse-photography-prize-2014/ [Accessed on 30 March 2019]
Cumming, L. (2013) Sebastião Salgado: Genesis – review. The Guardian. 14 April 2013. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/apr/14/sebastiao-salgado-genesis-review [Accessed on 10 April 2019]
ICP (2014) Sebastião Salgado: Genesis. International Center of Photography New York Exhibitions. Available at: https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/sebastião-salgado-genesis [Accessed on 10 April 2019]
International Energy Agency (2019)'CO2 Emissions Statistics.An essential tool for analysts and policy makers' Available at: https://www.iea.org/statistics/co2emissions/[Accessed on 25 April 2019]
Miles, M. (2010) Representing nature: art and climate change. Cultural Geographies, 17(1): 19-35.
Mosses, R. (2013) The Enclave. [Online Image] Artists Offical Website Available at:http://www.richardmosse.com/projects/the-enclave [Accessed on 27 March 2019]
Roosen, L. Klöckner, Ch. & Swim, J. (2018) Visual art as a way to communicate climate change: a
psychological perspective on climate change–related art. World Art, 8(1): 85-110
The Climate Reality Project (2017) 'An inconvenient truth then and now: what’s changed for our climate since 2006?' 17 Jan 2017. Available at: https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/inconvenient-truth-then-and-now [Accessed on 25 April 2019]
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