Rut - Blees Luxembourg 

Rut Blees Luxembourg is a photographer who primarily works at night to capture her photographs. These two photographs were taken from an East London Block of flats off of City Road. Image one was taken from the opposite flat on the sixteenth floor to create the view as if we are standing on the balcony watching the opposite block. The  view we see in the image give us an impression that there was not a lot of high rise buildings yet in London. The visual choices Luxembourg has applied to her work are the use of Long exposure photography particularly a ten minute exposure for this image. She used a large format camera and only Ambient lighting. The focal point is obviously the main block due to it being in complete focus where as the background starts to lose its focus as it drops to the background. The grid effect created on this image was broken from the use of the lights in the flats being turned on when people returned home from work. The use of the lights gives us an insight into the lives of the people living there the stronger the light the longer the people have been home. 

This image is of various blocks of flats found in the East - end of London. In this image Luxembourg is showing the viewer the style of housing found in the suburbia of London and how uninviting and uncharacteristic it is. She used the same style of photography and visual strategies found in image one. I especially am fond of image two  gives us a sense of scale in which blocks of housing is created in London you don't get the idea of a friendly neighbourhood but a dark environment 

Vera Lutter 

Vera Lutter was commissioned by The Museum of Contemporary Photography to turn offices into Camera Obscures and capture down town Chicago. Lutter as captured this photographs using a camera Obscures to create her photography where you use a aperture which passes through to the small dark chamber and the light is reflected onto the photographic paper to recreate the scene. Due to her small aperture the exposures are normally long a few hours or a day depending on the weather conditions of that day. This photographs are unique and changes the way we see this view due to everything being in opposition and objects in motion do not appear. 

 

Lutter has again used the Camera Obscure to create her photography she has used the same visual strategies as image one.  It gives the look of trail light photography the way the light trails across the streets. This city scape shows a lot of nature which makes the foreground of the photograph seem very flat which compositional wise works well for this image the flat space leading onto the sky scrappers of the city. 

Deconstructing Environmental Photographers

Alfred Stieglitz, The Flatiron, 1903

Stieglitz has portrayed the Flatiron as if the building is not an important aspect of the photograph but we all know that its supposed to be the focal point as the Americans celebrated the building in the same way the French celebrate the Eiffel Tower it also portrayed the idea of modern America. Stieglitz portrayed the building as towering over the city as if it’s out of place surrounding Madison SquarePark but does this image show the growth of New York City and what will be coming of the city.

Stieglitz has composed his 1903 photograph in a similar way to the other photographers of the time capturing The Flatiron building as well this idea of the trees surrounding the city finding nature still existing in the city the use of the tree maybe also used to portray the idea of height to the viewer and the size of the building in the city and what New York is becoming the idea of Skyscrapers being built in New York. They all used natural day light lighting conditions maybe the photographers were trying to portray the mood of New York City in the nineteen hundreds.  

The Intention of Alfred Stieglitz was to capture the Flatiron in a new an innovative way due to the excitement of the Flatiron this new and incredible building. Stieglitz wanted to take the focus away from the building but onto the landscape surrounding the building the weather conditions also helped this and created this misty view covering the building and turner the focus onto the nature found in Madison Square Park.

Visual Strategies incorporated in to the work of The Flatiron were, an array of tones a lot of tonnage was captured in the twigs you can see the groves of the branches and the different textures found on the tree in comparison to the Flatiron itself where you cannot find too many tones just the brick work tones and the grain effect created from the type of film used. The camera was situated left of the building in line with a row of trees facing the building.  The image has been focused on the upper third of the image where the tree splits into two parts. Stieglitz has used a small aperture to allow only a small amount of the image to be in focus.

                                Alvin Langdon Coburn, The Flatiron Building, 1911

            Coburn Portrayed the Flatiron building in a different way than other photographers did for the early nineteenth century style of photography. Coburn wanted the building to be the focal point so he has everything surrounding the Flatiron is out of focus so the viewer concentrates on the building. The Flatiron in this image is represented as a mighty building towering across the rest of the city. From the people captured in this image it gives the building a different significance it portrays this idea that this was a wealthy area of the city men in suits and top hats which allows us to believe that this building had to be in perfect condition adding a quality to the New York Skyscrapers which had to be seen to keep the reputation of the villages of that area and era of the time.

 Coburn has composed his photograph in a new innovative way for that era of time he has captured the whole environment of the Flatiron District the class of people found in that area the style of cars and the grandeur of the buildings. Due to the people having a less important impact on the image they are blurred this maybe also because there was movement in the image. This photograph has a natural not composed style about it I believe Coburn was trying to portray the lifestyle of the people in the Flatiron district.

Coburn’s visual strategies for this photograph were a small depth of field due to the top half of the photograph being in focus. The camera position was straight onto the people walking towards the camera the people are in line with the camera but was taken at a great distance from the building to enable him to capture the whole building and the sky. Coburn used mainly natural lighting with the help from the street lighting to light up the middle ground found in the photograph. The tones found in this image are two very distinct tonnages the buildings people cars and trees are very dark shadowed tones where as the sky, pavements and lights are very light tones which may be classed as a highlight.

            

                                      Edward Steichen The Flatiron, New York, 1905.

Steichen portrayed the Flatiron in a way that makes it appear less important in the context of the photograph due to the fact that it was taken early morning where it was still misty and dull looking outside you can hardly see the detail of the building just the outline.

The image has a feeling of a fine art painting, the top of the building has been cut out of the shot showing the large scale of the building. The use of the silhouettes created depth between the building and the foreground. The Flatiron showed the modern New York City in comparison to the Horse and Carriage found in the foreground.

This was a Platinum print capturing picturesque environment. Steichen used a shallow depth of field to allow only a small the image to be in focus 

Walter Gropius – The Flatiron Building, New York, 1928

The building is portrayed in a similar way to how the leaning tower of Pisa is photographed The composure of this photograph is very different to all the other photographs I have analysed of The Flatiron the whole photographic space is consumed by the building and the sky surrounding it. The intention of the photographer was to make sure that the viewer understood the composure and of the building and what it represents the coming of modern New York. Gropius creates something innovative for its time. The camera position was situated to the side of the building leaving a great distance to allow the whole building to be captured in the frame. Everything captured in the photograph is in focus which means Gropius used a large depth of field to allow this to happen. This allowed there to be a huge amount of tonnage in his image to allow the viewer to see the detail of the brick work.

                Walker Evans, Flatiron Building seen from below, New York City, 1928-29

Evans captured his image from a different angle compared to the other photographers. He decided to capture The Flatiron from underneath this portrays a more documentary style of work showing the building for what it is. It also portrays this idea of importance to the American history.  Evans positioned the camera underneath the building which has created an a ray of tones from midtones and shadows found in the architecture.

                                        Bernice Abbott, The Flatiron Building, 1938

The Flatiron in Abbotts photograph is portrayed as a new innovative documented piece of photography. Abbott seems to portraying this image as documenting the scene in history rather than creating a piece of art work like some earlier photographers have done. Natural lighting was used, the camera was situated low down to capture the whole building in the frame a large depth of field was used to allow the whole image to be in focus.

 From these six images the first three showed this iconic building as a fine art picturesque painting. Where as the last three photographers showed the Flat iron building as a documentary photograph recording the American icon in the century it was created.