Deconstructing Environmental Photographers

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 1, Edward Steichen, The flatiron new york, 1905: This picture like the next two, is taken at ground level looking straight at the building with trees in the frame. It is taken during the the night with a long exposure. This picture was taken shortly after Steichen started to use colour in his pictures. There is almost a painting feeling to it; Steichen was one of the few photographers at the time who saw photography as an art.

Picture 2 Alfred Steiglitz, The Flatiron, 1903: Like the first image, it is taken on a street level with a tree in a frame. This picture however does not centre on the building, which is in the backgrounded slightly faded out, it gives the picture more of an artistic sense. Steiglitz worked with Steichen before, and like him he wanted to make photography into an art.

Picture 3 Alvin Langdon Coburn The Flatiron Building 1911: Again this picture is taken on a street level with a tree in the frame, but it resembles Steichen's more. There is only a branch shown of the tree on the left of the picture, just like Steichen's. However this picture differs to the previous two which were quite flat with low contrast. In this picture we can the the lamppost lit up, so night is falling, but there is still a very strong sky in the background which indicates that this picture was taken in the early hours of twilight. It has much more contrast than the previous two and is out of focus, giving it an eerie feeling to it.

Picture 1 to 3 are almost like a criticism of the building itself, weighing it against nature and always putting it in the background as if unimportant. When the building was build many people rejected it, it was a good opportunity for Steichen and Steiglitz to use photography as mean in art to depict that anger towards the building. Compared to the last three pictures these three are far more artistic.

Picture 4 Walter Gropius The Flatiron Building New York 1928: This image is very different to the previous ones. The Flatiron is is only thing in the image, no surroundings or other buildings. Also Gropius used a large depth of field enabling him to get the entire building in focus. The camera is tilted upwards making the Flatiron look taller than in the previous images. Unlike the previous three pictures Gropius is admiring the Flatiron, looking up towards it and implying that it is a positive thing instead of a negative one. Gropius was an architect from the Bauhaus, which would explain why he was so exited about the new, modern looking building at the time.

Picture 5 Walker Evans Flatiron Building seen from bellow New York City 1928: Like Gropius, Evans took a flattering image of the flatiron. Looking up at the building but with other things in the image giving it a bit more of an artistic feel to it. However Evans made the building look bigger than Gropius, more sturdy and safe, another architectural feature of it. His picture has more contrast as well, loosing some of the detail but making the flatiron more overbearing.

Picture 6 Bernice Abbott  The Flatiron Building 1938: Like the previous two photographers Abbott is looking up at the building but not as dramatically. the camera position gives a sense of being on the street opposite looking up at it. Again the Flatiron is the centre of the image but like Evans there are some other buildings in the picture. Abbott used a bit of contrast in her picture but not as much as Evans finding a right middle between Evans and Gropius. Contrary to others it looks like the photograph could be between a documentary and artistic sense.

Picture 4 to 6 have more of an architectural approach to them. instead on focusing on it's negatives, the pictures depict what a great building this is, they have a sense of documentary to them, s if the picture were taken to record such a nice and new (at the time) building.