For the Major Project Practice, Underwater Photography will be a large part of the second half of the series as the story progresses from visualising Causes of Climate Change towards imagining a future were the Effects of Climate Change feature in.
The second set of images will be more imaginative and futuristic, requiring more time for preplanning and testing the seperate elements before placing them all together for the final images.
The first images of the future setting (start from around #10/12 of the total series) will include real architecture photographed around Auckland that as the series progresses will become more surrounded by the waters and begin to sink before the final images will show the city being transformed into waste with the water completely drowning it. Auckland will become a sunken city.
To develop the underwater footage I used a GoPro Hero 3+ Camera together with an underwater case and a floating device so that the camera wouldn't sink if it was let go off.
The session started at mid day at St Heliers Beach in East Auckland to capture the highest tides first.
While the images will show the destruction of a city, they will also focus on the power of nature and the insignificance of the individual, a concept Edmund Burke described as 'the sublime' in his work 'A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful.' . While my images will lure the viewer in using beauty and showing scenes and angles of a city they haven't seen before, it will also reveal a tragic future.
After the first test, I tried to create some more abstract images of underwater splashing. The splashing resulted in bubbles of air moving towards the surface and through the frame, creating a more dynamic composition and an extra level of excitement as the viewer is presented with an unfamiliar view.
Mixing the dynamic underwater scenes with actual architectural images from Aucklands CBD will present the viewer with some familiar elements, that will gain his attention when looking at the final series, however the composition and digital layering will take the familiar scenes into a new setting creating images, waiting to be explored.
By adding familiar parts to an otherwise unfamiliar scene, I hope to create a series that grabs the audiences attention but then also educates them about the elements of the image they are not yet sure about. Especially when exploring a major topic like 'climate change' it is important to create an impression and educate an audience. My images will make them wonder about what it is they are seeing and ultimately what this means for their personal future.
Bibliography:
Burke, E. (1803) A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful. Montrose
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