Eric De Mare Research

Eric De Mare

Context
Eric de Maré (1910 in London – 2002) was a British photographer and author, described as one of the greatest British architectural photographers. Canals and waterways feature significantly in de Maré’s work. In 1948, he boated a dozen of the English canals during a 600-mile tour, photographing the landscapes, buildings and people he encountered. In 1956, he was commissioned to travel throughout England to photograph early industrial sites and buildings.The functional tradition within architecture had received little attention from contemporary architects until this study, but the work coincided with and promoted an increased interest in the qualities of early industrial structures. His work in the 1960s reflected the other end of the industrial spectrum, focussing on modern power generation plants, to which his photographs frequently conferred a sculptural quality.

Images

In this image we can see an old brick bridge across a river, underneath and surrounded the bridge is grass and bushes, there are also houses on the other side. De Mare documented old industrial estates, this image shows this because it is made from brick whereas modern day structures are made from mainly glass. This image shows natural land use more than man-made land use because the main features in the image are the grass and the water. Eric De Mare can also relate to Ansel Adams and the one system because of his use of black and white images. The main influence I am taking from this image is his documentation of older structures which can be compared to the modern structures that are found around today. 

In this image we can see a building over a river which immediately looks like a prison because of the bars in the window and the lack of open windows as well. Similar to a lot of his other work De Mare documents buildings that are in the middle of nowhere which shows how the man-made land uses are taking over the natural land uses. There are some natural land uses existing in this image because of the trees and grass visible in the foreground. This image also includes darker tones giving the image a negative atmosphere which links back to the idea that this image is of a prison. 

In this image we can see a structure which looks like a telephone pylon because of the wires running from the structure to the ground. This is different to the majority of the images that he has taken because this is a modern structure, this image shows how modern structures have progressed but also how modern technology has progressed with the telephone pylons. It can also be taken from this image that the natural land uses have been taken over by man-made land uses because it is located in the middle of nowhere due to the lack of people and the fields/water. This can also be interpreted because of the darker tones used within the image.

In this image we can see a power station surrounded by ruined land and other buildings. The main thing standing out of this image is the state of the land around the buildings, it had been flattened and the grass is gone and there is just mud. There is also a negative atmosphere around this image because of the darker tones used, the buildings and the land are all darker tones. Similar to the photographers I have looked at before he also focuses on the idea of the man-made land uses becoming a threat to the natural land uses as they are being destroyed and taken over. Eric De Mare has taken images of power stations which have a big negative impact on natural land which shows what his main idea is of land uses. 

Eric De Mare takes a similar approach to the first photographer I looked at, John Davies. As well as linking him to this photographer he can also be linked to Ansel Adams, the use of the black and white effect relates to the zone system where darker and lighter tones can show the atmosphere of the image. In this image we get a negative atmosphere because of the negative land uses within the image, the power station in the background ruins the nature. This is the type of idea I want to express in my work, man-made land uses are often negative and ruin the natural land uses. His use of the black and white effect is also something I want to carry on within my work as it will establish a deeper atmosphere within the image and help focus on the land uses within the images. His work is mainly focused on the architectural side of land use and how it has been neglected, this is shown in this image because of the lack of care given to the church. I can also carry this technique within my work because it will show the difference between the new and old buildings.

Influence and Summary

I have chosen to take influence of the conceptual approach that Eric De Mare follows because his main idea is to document man-made land uses in a negative way by using darker tones which is similar to Ansel Adams, this idea is what I want to follow. His idea of documenting the old industrial estates can be incorporated into my idea because I have documented old and new estates. The main idea I am taking from him is to show how man-made land uses have taken away the nature elements in the world. The image below can relate to Eric De Mare because it shows a man-made land use in-between natural land uses which give the impression that the nature is being ruined, I have also used darker tones to give this interpretation.