Cityscapes

Cityscape's like seascapes are sometimes classed as a subject of there own an some do not believe that they fall under the heading landscape as they are man made and not natural features on the horizon. I however do think they do class as landscape so i will be including them in my project. There have been many photos taken of city's as they cover such a vast expanse and are not exactly out of the way.

Many photographers have done cityscape's some of the more notable are Andreas Feininger and atget. Andreas Feininger did many photo's of New York as it was being built and this has lead to some really impressive shots from half built skyscrapers and streets while at the same time the vibrant nightlife is also captured. He took his photo's in black and white by necessity but i think that this led to some fantastic photo's being taken that wouldn't be the same if they had been in colour.

For instance this photo would not of had the same effect if it had been in colour as because it is in black and white the picture is highlighted and the photo it self is shown in such away that makes it look really alive.

I think that his other photo's of the nightlife are equally as good especially the one's i have selected and put below.

I like the effect the black and white makes this photo look alive and i think this works really well in an urban environment however i don't think i am going to use this in my own photo's because the areas i am going to take photo's of are quite colourful unlike the city's of the 1950's and i think it would be better to include these in my photo's.

This photo again is really good i think it is in particular the contrast between black and white / light and dark i like about this picture it really highlights how alive the city is despite the varst concrete world looming all around. This is an effect that is hard to do and can only be acheived in a city that is teaming with life like New York.

Here are a some more of his photo's that I like.

I really like the photo on the right because the lights of the traffic seem to just flow through the city like water in between the buildings. The long exposure in this photo has worked really well.

In the photo on the left here i really like the photo here on the left. The line of the bridge really draws the eye through this photo and the people there really add a sense of scale to this photo which really shows the momentous size and engenering feat that this bridge is.

I have really liked all these photo's but i think as they were done in the 1950's they lack some of the qualities that can make a cityscape look great just because of how early these were done and how much photography ang the city's them selves have progressed. To this end i am going to look at the work of Sze Tsung Leong.

This photo really like the way the built up city surrounds the building site because it seems odd that they'd stat building on both sides before the space in the middle is filled in. It is most likely that there put another apartment building in but i think that space would be perfect for a large park.

I like the way the varying levels of the city seem to go up in steps it really draws the eye up to the back but in contrast to so many other photo's it almost seems the light is coming up from the street which draws the eye back down overall this gives an odd but interesting effect.

This photo is odd because of how empty it is even though there are some very large and impressive buildings with a huge highway in between which immediately draw the eye toward the vast sprawl of the city that dominates the horizon.

This is an odd photo building in the centre i really impressive seems like it should be in a much more urbanized area but in a way it is there is still all the roads and large buildings you'd expect from a city but they are all surrounded by swaves of trees on all sides