Lens Work - Research | BA(hons) Photography

Ansel Adams & The F64 Group

The F64 group, which included Ansel Adams, was formed in 1932 and was made up of eleven photographers from in and around the Bay Area of California. They promoted a style of sharply detailed, straight, purist photography.

Ansel Adams described pure photography as "...defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form".

The F64 group formed in opposition to the Pictorialist photography style that was dominating much of the early 20th century.

Pictorialism - A style in which the photographer has somehow manipulated what would otherwise be a straight forward photograph as means of "creating and image" rather than simply recording it. Pictorialist photography usually lack a sharp focus and use a soft focus lens to make photos look like drawings along with there being visible brush strokes or other manipulation of the surface.

The F64 Group wanted to promote a modernist aesthetic. Images were made with sharp lenses, printed on glossy paper and employed extensive depth of field to allow sharpness across the entire picture plane. They wanted to make pictures that amazed viewers with texture, composition, complete tonal range and light. They were Modernists.

-Half Dome, Apple Orchard, Yosemite - Ansel Adams -Dunes, Oceano - Edward Weston

Fay Godwin was known for her black and white landscapes of the British Countryside and coast. Her hobby of photographing her young children and her love of walking and interest in landscapes led to her career in photography.

Godwin became concerned with our violation on the earth, the way we violate our rivers, canals and shores. Since the 70's she had recorded 'keep out' and 'private' signs on walks in the British countryside along with rotting cars, litter and sheep staring over military fencing.

'Our Forbidden Land' is a stab at the destruction of the countryside and much of her work confronts the significance of the conservation and preservation of the British landscape.

Godwin used a deep depth of field in her photographs a lot of the time to show an expanse of land that was also restricted. She touched on 'what could be' the future of our countryside.

-Stadley Pike, Calderdale, Yorkshire - Our Forbidden Land -Disused mine water treatment plant, Todmorden, Lancashire -Our Forbidden Land

-Night Guard - Our Forbidden Land -Countryside of Brassington, Derbyshire - Our Forbidden Land

Mona Kuhn creates images filled with intimacy. To do this she develops close relationships with her subjects. She uses shallow depth of field to show this intimacy and draw the eye to places of the human body that in public would not normally be acceptable to look at.

-Refractions -Reflections

Kim Kirkpatrick is a landscape photographer whose work focuses on industrial areas in Washington D.C. During the 1980's - 90's he used the effect 'Bokeh' which is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out of focus parts of an image - the way the lens renders out of focus points of light. Mixing Bokeh with shallow depth of field, Kirkpatrick created a vast amount of abstract images.

-Kim Kirkpatrick

Guy Bourdin was a French photographer considered as the best known fashion photographer of his time. His photos for fashion were dramatically head turning and had the ability to shock. He created hyper-realism and used harsh colour saturation along with sharpness throughout the whole frame of an image.

The product was secondary to the image and he was inspired by art history, literature and cinema.

-French Vogue, 1978 -Charles Jourdan, 1979

-Charles Jourdan, 1977

Gianluca Cosci is an Italian photographer who focuses on urban landscape and architecture. His series of work 'Panem et Circenses' translates in English to Bread and Circuses and was shot around the Millenium Dome once it closed after being open for 12 months. Cosci called it a "depressing no mans land".

He uses an extremely shallow depth of field in this series to focus on small areas and states on his website, " I am interested in the point of view of the excluded, the marginalised. Often one is forced to have only restricted views, in awkward positions, difficult to maintain. Nevertheless we could take advantage of this apparent fault to observe and understand things in a different, unexpected way".

This statement definitely rings true in Panem et Circenses. His unusual way of using shallow depth of field in the series allows the viewer to look at this small part of the world that he has focused on in a completely new way and at things/objects that we may normally disregard or even notice.

-Panem et Circenses, no.19 -Panem et Circenses, no. 3

-Panem et Circenses, no 2

I enjoyed researching the photographers above. Some were easier to find info on than others and I found myself really searching the web.
It was interesting to see how each photographer had a different way of using depth of field and the reasons they had behind it and how each had their own unique way of presenting it throughout their shots.

Below are a few of my own shots from my personal archive that show some of the aesthetic codes discussed in Project 2.

'Castle in the clouds'

I took the photo above last year in Walt Disney world. My intention was for the balloons to be the focus of the shot with the castle in the background still playing a big part in the image but in a subtler way. I think the use of a shallow depth of field has allowed this to be effective, although it took me a few goes to get the shot and the positioning of the balloons right. This was taken also on a typical stormy day in Florida so the image has been put through Lightroom to brighten it up.

Looking through shots from Fay Godwin's 'Our Forbidden Land' and seeing her image of Stonehenge reminded me that I had stopped off there on my way home from a break away last year.
After paying £5 for parking and then walking over to the visitor centre to see that it was going to cost around £20 each to go and visit the Heritage site almost made us turn around and keep driving but I had the idea that we might be able to walk there without a ticket - which we could. We just could't get as close as people who had paid the ridiculous prices, which was fine by me.
I find this photo amusing because the huddle of people close to the stones paid £20 for a selfie with the tourist attraction when I feel I got a better shot from a distance and for free!
The whole frame of this image is in focus which allows the viewers eye to explore and create their own story for the shot.

Last February I spent a week in San Francisco. This was our second trip to the city by the Bay - we had fallen in love with the place.
The shot to the left was taken on our approach to Alcatraz. The sign was well weathered as you can tell and is visible on your approach to the island.
This is another image from my archive that reminded me of Fay Godwin's work as she photographed a lot of signs that held warnings of 'private land' or 'keep out'.
This shot displays a deep depth of field, again like the photo above, allowing the viewer to explore the whole frame.