Part A) Artist Comparison
Barbara Cole
What style is their photography (fine art, documentary, editorial or news, portrait, commercial, or other)
Barbara Cole develops fine art photographs where her photos are not made for commercial, or editorial type uses but purely for its visual appeal. She explores with many different styles, shapes, forms and colours. However, her fine art photography has a distinct style where she uses vibrant/soft colour tones, vintage filters, figure transformation, and models as it demonstrates a different message in different photographs. Overall, her photos look like a hyperreallistic painting. An example is her collection called “White Noise” (2008), displays a series of 10 still and lenticular (30 x 40 inches) photographs of models performing in different poses underwater, Cole was deeply influenced by the view from looking at people underwater because she believed that the water had allowed the human figure to move in distorted but pleasing ways. Cole explains her perception through the lens of the camera and states that, “Seeing through water, rather than through air, makes me re-envision the nature of my relationship to my surroundings. I have become absorbed by the way water heightens and mythologizes human action and experience.” As a fine art photographer, Cole was able to demonstrate fine art photography by having control of the environment and using it to create a unique focal point, develop an artistic photo, while providing a powerful statement to the audience.
What was their career path? How did they get where they are now?
Cole did not have any vision of becoming a fine art photographer. When she was a teen, she began her career as a model, a secretary, and a fashion editor for the Toronto Sun in 1972. During her position as a fashion editor at the age of 19, she constantly took many photographs. As her position as a fashion editor elevated to become working as a photojournalist, she decided to learn different photographic techniques such as utilizing a darkroom, and taking fashion runway photos in different parks of the county. After her long journey of creating commercial projects, she discovered her passion for taking photographs and displayed her photographs at her first photographic exhibition for Toronto’s Jane Corkin Gallery. Through learning different photographic techniques and skills, Cole was comfortably able to experiment with different environments that she was most drawn to, such as human motion underwater. Cole’s artworks have been displayed in many different institutions worldwide such as Washington D.C, and Tokyo and has developed large-scale art pieces and installations for the Breast Cancer Centre in Toronto. She has also won many awards such as the Grand Prize, and International Photography awards, which have made her officially be known as a fine art photographer.
What do you think contributed to their success as a photographer?
While her early career as a model and fashions editor and her willingness to learn different photographic techniques made her become a successful photographer, there were other factors that contributed and influenced her success as a photographer as well. Cole’s flaw, which was having frequent migraines everyday for three years had driven her to take daily swims, which were recommended by her doctor to help reduce her constant migraines. After taking her doctor’s advice, her health had improved drastically. From this, her passion for swimming had been created and she combined her two passions of photography and swimming to create something innovative. In her “White Noise” series, she displays her iconic underwater photos which had caught many viewers eyes, therefore making her known for this specific style and become a famous and successful photographer.
What is/was their technique — are their photos manipulated, composites, staged, strictly as shot?
In Cole’s current artworks, she combines painting and traditional photography techniques to create her works. In most of her photographs, Cole will take photos from above to flatten a perspective, or will take photos from under to create dimension and depth to elongate the perspective. As she uses Photoshop to edit her photographs, she prefers to capture the major photographic elements (can also be made in Photoshop) using purely her camera before editing. When Cole works with water (as many of her photographs has a predominant theme of using water) she considers the amount of space needed to make the photo visually pleasing and also makes the environment harmonize with the focal point as well. She also takes in consideration of the aperture, shutter speed, and artificial lighting as many of her photos consist of natural movements from the environment and human motions.
What do you think they want to say with their photographs?
Cole’s primary theme in her photographs is involving, nature and humans, and through her photographs, I think she is changing our perceptions of nature and how we should protect it in order for it to have a great and positive impact to our life and the world.
What is it about their work that appeals/doesn't appeal to you personally?
I feel that her past work (starting from 1986) were very generic and didn’t pose a distinct message to the readers, therefore which did not make it very appealing to me. As she experimented with very common elements in photography in the past, I found that her current works were very appealing as it demonstrated different colour tones, human motions, and movements of nature. These visual elements drew my eyes and made the photograph as a whole very interesting.
Barbara Cole develops fine art photographs where her photos are not made for commercial, or editorial type uses but purely for its visual appeal. She explores with many different styles, shapes, forms and colours. However, her fine art photography has a distinct style where she uses vibrant/soft colour tones, vintage filters, figure transformation, and models as it demonstrates a different message in different photographs. Overall, her photos look like a hyperreallistic painting. An example is her collection called “White Noise” (2008), displays a series of 10 still and lenticular (30 x 40 inches) photographs of models performing in different poses underwater, Cole was deeply influenced by the view from looking at people underwater because she believed that the water had allowed the human figure to move in distorted but pleasing ways. Cole explains her perception through the lens of the camera and states that, “Seeing through water, rather than through air, makes me re-envision the nature of my relationship to my surroundings. I have become absorbed by the way water heightens and mythologizes human action and experience.” As a fine art photographer, Cole was able to demonstrate fine art photography by having control of the environment and using it to create a unique focal point, develop an artistic photo, while providing a powerful statement to the audience.
What was their career path? How did they get where they are now?
Cole did not have any vision of becoming a fine art photographer. When she was a teen, she began her career as a model, a secretary, and a fashion editor for the Toronto Sun in 1972. During her position as a fashion editor at the age of 19, she constantly took many photographs. As her position as a fashion editor elevated to become working as a photojournalist, she decided to learn different photographic techniques such as utilizing a darkroom, and taking fashion runway photos in different parks of the county. After her long journey of creating commercial projects, she discovered her passion for taking photographs and displayed her photographs at her first photographic exhibition for Toronto’s Jane Corkin Gallery. Through learning different photographic techniques and skills, Cole was comfortably able to experiment with different environments that she was most drawn to, such as human motion underwater. Cole’s artworks have been displayed in many different institutions worldwide such as Washington D.C, and Tokyo and has developed large-scale art pieces and installations for the Breast Cancer Centre in Toronto. She has also won many awards such as the Grand Prize, and International Photography awards, which have made her officially be known as a fine art photographer.
What do you think contributed to their success as a photographer?
While her early career as a model and fashions editor and her willingness to learn different photographic techniques made her become a successful photographer, there were other factors that contributed and influenced her success as a photographer as well. Cole’s flaw, which was having frequent migraines everyday for three years had driven her to take daily swims, which were recommended by her doctor to help reduce her constant migraines. After taking her doctor’s advice, her health had improved drastically. From this, her passion for swimming had been created and she combined her two passions of photography and swimming to create something innovative. In her “White Noise” series, she displays her iconic underwater photos which had caught many viewers eyes, therefore making her known for this specific style and become a famous and successful photographer.
What is/was their technique — are their photos manipulated, composites, staged, strictly as shot?
In Cole’s current artworks, she combines painting and traditional photography techniques to create her works. In most of her photographs, Cole will take photos from above to flatten a perspective, or will take photos from under to create dimension and depth to elongate the perspective. As she uses Photoshop to edit her photographs, she prefers to capture the major photographic elements (can also be made in Photoshop) using purely her camera before editing. When Cole works with water (as many of her photographs has a predominant theme of using water) she considers the amount of space needed to make the photo visually pleasing and also makes the environment harmonize with the focal point as well. She also takes in consideration of the aperture, shutter speed, and artificial lighting as many of her photos consist of natural movements from the environment and human motions.
What do you think they want to say with their photographs?
Cole’s primary theme in her photographs is involving, nature and humans, and through her photographs, I think she is changing our perceptions of nature and how we should protect it in order for it to have a great and positive impact to our life and the world.
What is it about their work that appeals/doesn't appeal to you personally?
I feel that her past work (starting from 1986) were very generic and didn’t pose a distinct message to the readers, therefore which did not make it very appealing to me. As she experimented with very common elements in photography in the past, I found that her current works were very appealing as it demonstrated different colour tones, human motions, and movements of nature. These visual elements drew my eyes and made the photograph as a whole very interesting.
Ed Burtynsky
What style is their photography (fine art, documentary, editorial or news, portrait, commercial, or other)
Ed Burtynsky is a documentary photographer where nature is the primary theme in his wide array of works. He displays explicit images of the different fundamental natural resources that are on earth such as water, oil, and mines, as well as complex and striking photographs that send a powerful message involving the transformations of nature through manufacturing, as well as the destruction of nature. Burtynsky’s photos demonstrate vibrant and unusual colours that are not seen outside nature. He explores different colours by viewing them from a vantage point that is above (to capture a wide landscape and view), this gives the artist an advantage to see all the colours in uniform and to be seen as whole. The viewers are then able to recognize these explicit lands and colours, through this Burtynsky is able to portray his message effectively. Burtynsky style shows that he incorporates texture, space, pattern, emphasis, lines, shapes, and repetition. The photo “Colorado River Delta #2” that was taken near San Felipe, Mexico (2011), consists of all texture, space, pattern, emphasis, lines, shapes, and repetition. He demonstrates the rigidness of the crack by capturing this photo from above to see all the branches and the trenches made in each branch. He uses the majority of his space to fill in all the branches and shapes to make the photo more appealing to the viewers and allow the viewers to recognize what the photo is. The branches of the river also demonstrate leading lines, which give the attention to the viewers that it this photo is indeed a strange looking river. Burtynsky uses these elements in his style to effectively create a visually appealing photo.
What was their career path? How did they get where they are now?
Burtynsky had chosen to become a photographer at an early age. When he first immigrated to Canada from the Ukraine, his father worked at a production line at a general motor plant. From this, the ships and all the manufactured components that came with it influenced him. This ultimately influenced the photos he captured of manufactured things that surrounded him. He was first introduced to photography when his father bought him a camera and darkroom and taught him how to develop black and white prints in a small business that took portraits. From the environment and relationship he had with his father’s familiarity of photography, he drove himself to learn more about photography and become a photographer himself. He then studied graphic arts and photography and received a diploma In mid 1970s to early 1980s from Niagara College in Welland Ontario, and a BAA in photographic arts from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto. After becoming known for his documentary photographs, he soon created documentaries such as "Manufactured Landscapes" where it takes place in China as Burtynsky travels the country to see recycling yards, factories, mines, and dams.
What do you think contributed to their success as a photographer?
Through Burtynsky’s learning process in photography, he came to capture a lot of nature. This was because his influential artists (Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Eadweard Muybridge, and Carleton Watkins). Through his influences, he was able to find his own style and capture more innovative works of art in different parts of the world.
What is/was their technique — are their photos manipulated, composites, staged, strictly as shot?
in Burtynsky’s photographs, he captures photos from a higher vantage point in a landscape to see the detailing of the lands, nature, and platforms in high resolution. He also captures the major photographic elements (can also be made in Photoshop) using only a camera without manipulating the photo in computerized editing. Without editing, his major technique is to focus on the texture, space, pattern, emphasis, lines, shapes, and repetition to make the photo look genuine and not fake.
What do you think they want to say with their photographs?
Burtynsky’s primary theme in his photographs is involving nature and the residual landscape. Through his works, he captures the transformations that nature goes through to become manufactured and facilitated. He conveys metaphorical messages where the earth is sacrificing it’s own life and nature to help human desires and success, and our dependence for nature has become too strong that we misuse it by destroying it. Through his photographs, he plans to convey the contradictions between the health of nature and the health of humans.
What is it about their work that appeals/doesn't appeal to you personally?
The detailing in his photographs are very eye-catching as he also displays the different elements and principles of design such as texture, space, pattern, emphasis, lines, shapes, and repetition. The vibrant colours and the uniformity also make his photographs very appealing as they create interesting messages and visuals to the viewers. One aspect of his photographs that does not appeal to me is his photographs of homesteads, rail cuts, and early landscapes because it displayed limited amount of vibrant colours and only dull ones and they did not bring any effectiveness to the photograph.
Ed Burtynsky is a documentary photographer where nature is the primary theme in his wide array of works. He displays explicit images of the different fundamental natural resources that are on earth such as water, oil, and mines, as well as complex and striking photographs that send a powerful message involving the transformations of nature through manufacturing, as well as the destruction of nature. Burtynsky’s photos demonstrate vibrant and unusual colours that are not seen outside nature. He explores different colours by viewing them from a vantage point that is above (to capture a wide landscape and view), this gives the artist an advantage to see all the colours in uniform and to be seen as whole. The viewers are then able to recognize these explicit lands and colours, through this Burtynsky is able to portray his message effectively. Burtynsky style shows that he incorporates texture, space, pattern, emphasis, lines, shapes, and repetition. The photo “Colorado River Delta #2” that was taken near San Felipe, Mexico (2011), consists of all texture, space, pattern, emphasis, lines, shapes, and repetition. He demonstrates the rigidness of the crack by capturing this photo from above to see all the branches and the trenches made in each branch. He uses the majority of his space to fill in all the branches and shapes to make the photo more appealing to the viewers and allow the viewers to recognize what the photo is. The branches of the river also demonstrate leading lines, which give the attention to the viewers that it this photo is indeed a strange looking river. Burtynsky uses these elements in his style to effectively create a visually appealing photo.
What was their career path? How did they get where they are now?
Burtynsky had chosen to become a photographer at an early age. When he first immigrated to Canada from the Ukraine, his father worked at a production line at a general motor plant. From this, the ships and all the manufactured components that came with it influenced him. This ultimately influenced the photos he captured of manufactured things that surrounded him. He was first introduced to photography when his father bought him a camera and darkroom and taught him how to develop black and white prints in a small business that took portraits. From the environment and relationship he had with his father’s familiarity of photography, he drove himself to learn more about photography and become a photographer himself. He then studied graphic arts and photography and received a diploma In mid 1970s to early 1980s from Niagara College in Welland Ontario, and a BAA in photographic arts from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto. After becoming known for his documentary photographs, he soon created documentaries such as "Manufactured Landscapes" where it takes place in China as Burtynsky travels the country to see recycling yards, factories, mines, and dams.
What do you think contributed to their success as a photographer?
Through Burtynsky’s learning process in photography, he came to capture a lot of nature. This was because his influential artists (Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Eadweard Muybridge, and Carleton Watkins). Through his influences, he was able to find his own style and capture more innovative works of art in different parts of the world.
What is/was their technique — are their photos manipulated, composites, staged, strictly as shot?
in Burtynsky’s photographs, he captures photos from a higher vantage point in a landscape to see the detailing of the lands, nature, and platforms in high resolution. He also captures the major photographic elements (can also be made in Photoshop) using only a camera without manipulating the photo in computerized editing. Without editing, his major technique is to focus on the texture, space, pattern, emphasis, lines, shapes, and repetition to make the photo look genuine and not fake.
What do you think they want to say with their photographs?
Burtynsky’s primary theme in his photographs is involving nature and the residual landscape. Through his works, he captures the transformations that nature goes through to become manufactured and facilitated. He conveys metaphorical messages where the earth is sacrificing it’s own life and nature to help human desires and success, and our dependence for nature has become too strong that we misuse it by destroying it. Through his photographs, he plans to convey the contradictions between the health of nature and the health of humans.
What is it about their work that appeals/doesn't appeal to you personally?
The detailing in his photographs are very eye-catching as he also displays the different elements and principles of design such as texture, space, pattern, emphasis, lines, shapes, and repetition. The vibrant colours and the uniformity also make his photographs very appealing as they create interesting messages and visuals to the viewers. One aspect of his photographs that does not appeal to me is his photographs of homesteads, rail cuts, and early landscapes because it displayed limited amount of vibrant colours and only dull ones and they did not bring any effectiveness to the photograph.