Seminar 3 - Deconstructing Environmental Photographers Jem Southam

Jem Southam's work portrays this message of man's input onto Nature and the idea of Decay and Renewal. The three images I have decided to study are from the 'Rockfalls River Mounts and Ponds' series created year 2000. After looking into Southam's work I found a historical connection with his work due to him going back to the original site of his work years later and re photographing maybe to see the extent of the decay of that site.

In this image there is a limited amount of human interference with nature and this isn't what the normal viewer would depict from this photograph. This place appears to be somewhere that has hardly any human interaction apart from the council or owner who keeps the area maintained. Due to the cold colours portrayed in the image this makes one think that this image was created in late Autumn which maybe why I get the feeling of no human interaction. If this image was re created in the summer I may depict different characteristics of this image. Due to different parts of the image being in focused this suggests that Southam has priorities of what he wants the viewer to see and feel. This image was shot at mid angle making us the viewer feel as if where there with Southam creating the image.

The above image creates a different feeling in comparison to image one. This image makes us feel that there is a sense of human interaction with the land, this is due to the fencing surrounding each  field. This gives us the viewer an insight and maybe the owner of filed created this pond or maybe nature created itself with a heavy rainfall one year and is now being kept by the owner of the land. The positioning of the camera is very different compared to image one this looks like it was taken from above land but to the side of the land so we can get the sense of scale of the pond and its surroundings.

Image three is the most unique image out of three due to the fact that  there is human beings standing in the background of the image taking in the beauty of this picturesque landscape. The colours of the sky are very different to image one and two, this image has a sense of life from the blues in the sky instead of the dull greys found in the other two images. The fact that everything in our view is in focus gives us the sense that Southam wanted everything to be of importance value. The camera was positioned above land most likely in a helicopter this enabled the viewer to get a sense of scale of the landscape and the presence of the people.

From looking at the works of Southam I have found that the smallest detail  can suggest this idea of human intervention on nature without there being a large trace of the human  interference. Also the use of colour creates and makes the mind feel a certain way and the use of people also changes our perception of an image.