John Davies became famous through his research of English industrial landscapes in vast and detailed views. His work belongs to contemporary documentary photography. His work is presented in black and white photographs and he documents vastness of space and inhabited by the powerful elements of nature and the contradictory ones of culture to operate in two directions. In one way he shows emotional states through the landscapes and on the other hand he shows the material aspects of the contemporary landscape which is ties to the development of the productive activities and concrete structuring of the world through the moulding power of economy and property. His work links to the exam title land use because he shows how humans have built up the country with houses and transportation routes.
In this first image we can see an active train station with trains at the platform. The train station can be considered as an abstract building because of the way it looks with the city above it. Davies has documented this image in black and white like all of his other images, this can link to the type of atmosphere he is trying to create. The lighter tones within the image show that he isn't trying to create a negative atmosphere by documenting this land use. He has shown an extremely industrial town within this image because of how busy it looks, it also looks crowded with the buildings within the background. We can also see a crane in the image which can link to the refurbishment of old buildings into new and modern ones. His work relates closely to land use because he shows the industrial uses and man-made uses which differ completely with the natural land uses. I can take his idea of land use and incorporate it within my work because it will show how man-made and natural land uses combine together to create the world.
This image is extremely similar to the last one, it shows an industrial estate which lacks natural land uses. The only nature within the image i the trees located in some areas, if the image was documented in colour it would have a different atmosphere as the nature colours would be visible. Davies also relates closely to Ansel Adams because he uses the black and white effect to create an atmosphere within the image. All of his images are closely related because he shows the negative effect of the industrial estates. We would assume that this would be a busy area because it is an industrial estate but there is a lack of people within the image. There are a few factors that I can take from Davies work, the black and white atmosphere created is one factor.
In this image we can see a wide stretch of natural land with man-made features within the land. This is another example of Davies approach to land use, he shows in this image how the man-made features ruin the natural land uses. This image also uses darker tones which can relate to other photographers such as Ansel Adams because of his use of the zone system, the darker tones show a negative atmosphere. John Davies takes a negative approach to land use and focuses on the difference between man-made and natural land uses which is an idea that I want to express within my work.
This image shows a bridge towering over a canal, the canal is surrounded by buildings and there is a taller building in the background. The main focus of this image is the bridge which is actually a train track. Davies focuses on transportation in many of his images, transportation is a focus in this image because of the train track, the canal can also be seen as a form of transportations for boats. This image shows how land is used for transport but also how the natural land uses are replaced by the man-made land uses. There is a lack of nature showing how the man-made land uses have taken over which is an idea that I want to portray in my work.
There is a clear pattern in Davies work because he documents a lot about transportation which is related to land use. In this image we can see a train track and a road, both are located on bridges. In this image there is nature located in the foreground but it doesn't stand out because the image is black and white. Davies main aim was to present how the humans have built up the countryside and excluded the nature, this is shown in this image because of the lack of actual nature in the image. The main focus is the bridges because of their scale and structure, their existence takes away the natural land uses. I like the use of the black and white effect in this image because it is clear of the darker and lighter tones.
Influence and Summary
The main aspect I have taken from this photographer is his conceptual approach to show how man-made land uses have taken over and there are hardly any natural land uses existing. By following similar ideas from Davies it has enabled me to produce images that are similar to his. In my shoots I have been using the double exposure effect to combine the natural and man-made land uses. This links to Davies conceptual approach I have just made my own adjustments to it. As well as taking his conceptual approach I have also taken his visual approach by editing my images in black and white to link to his work.
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