Albert Renger-Patzsch was a German born photographer who was taking photos post WW1. He was born in Würzburg and was linked with the new objectivity movement which tried to display the world as clearly and precisely as possible. Renger-Patzsch took a series of 100 images he called "the world is beautiful" where he attempted to show natural and man made beauty in the world which was a new interpretation of beauty through art. Examples of Renger Patzschs photos from "the world is beautiful". I will be taking a series of 100 photos inspired by Renger Patzsch, and attempt to frame scenes that might not necessarily be beautiful when you can see everything but by cropping out and framing the image make it look beautiful and neat by hiding everything around it.
Out of these images my favourite is the one on the right. This image is very symmetrical and the composition is near perfect which gives the image a very neat feel which makes you concentrate on the details of it more even though there isn't much detail in it its not very complicated, which is the opposite of the world which is nearly always messy and complicated its never that neat. so through his images he's trying to neaten the world around him which by framing and composing his images perfectly he's cutting out the messiness of everything else surrounding the image . The image is very simple as there is only two different things in this image the buildings and the sky I like how simple it is as there is nothing to distract from the focus of the picture there is no need for anything else to add to the image its beautiful as it is. The light in this image as although most of the image is dark where the light is its glowing so it contrasts very well with the darkness of the building closer to the photographer. Looking at the image gives a sense of it closing in on you and the angle its taken at looking upwards makes the buildings look huge and overbearing. I think it would be interesting to see his images in colour as well as black and white as I think it could potentially give the images a completely different feel, as it might take away from the industrial sense of the image , it would be good to be able to compare what looks better.
My Images
These photos are based on the work of Albert Wrenger Patzsch's set of one hundred photos titled the world is beautiful. By studying his work I gained inspiration and ideas of how I would take these images, first looking at the basics of his images the neatness, symmetry , repetition of pattern and the obvious fact that there taken in black and white I attempted to base all of my own images on these themes, which to an extent I think i have managed. My initial ideas on what would be the main focus of this work was attempting to frame my work like Wrenger Patzsch as to make all of my images look neat even if the object the photo was taken of was messy by framing the photo well I would make it look neat. Over time as i was taking my images although that was still in the back of my mind the main focus for me began to be presenting my world beautifully, in affect I have attempted to photograph things I see everyday beautifully. That is probably the main reason why all of my Images were taken at school or home because at the moment thats where I am most of the time and they are the main settings of my life which have attempted the photograph in the same style as Wrenger Patzsch. Throughout the proccess of taking these images there has been lots of experimentation along the way as appose to doing any major changes in my work. For example on every photo I took I was constantly experimenting with focus and especially lighting. I found Taking almost all of these photos in monochrome a challenge as it called for constant experimentation with lighting and exposure to produce the best image possible. I chose not to use photoshop to enhance or alter any of my images as I thought that it wouldn't really fit the theme of it being specifically my world as I wanted it to be as close to what I see on a daily basis as possible. I am reasonably pleased with my final out come as I feel most of these images stick to my ideas about Wrenger Patzschs work and the themes I specifically wanted to focus on. I think I could have explored the theme better by not only photographing what I see in the world but what other people do as that would give a broader view of the world not only through my eyes. If I could add to this project I would like to have used different types of camera in particular film cameras to see if it adds to the images or not. Aswell as that my images are mainly close ups of objects so it would have been nice to have had some more images of buildings and structure like what was featured in the original set of one hundred images by Wrenger Patzsch.