Jem Southam
Jem Southam is a Bristol born photographer who has been heavily influenced and shaped by world events such as the paranoia surrounding the Cold War. Southam is most well known for his contribution to the world with his collection of colored landscape Photographs and his series on observations of changes at locations of the course of months or maybe years.
Southam’s observations usually are done where he lives and works in the south west of England, doing this work so local allows him to monitor the landscapes relationship with man and how we interfere with it. this also leads to him capturing the footprint of decay that we leave. |
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During the ‘70s Southam brought his first color camera and started working with color but didn’t find it to be his thing because the images were too saturated which convinced him to carry on taking black & white for six more years taking photos of architectural landscape. Then during the ‘80s he decided to work with color again starting in Bristol he discovered that technology has moved on and the resources that were available have improved allowing him to to experiment.
I have discovered his work to be very sharp and full of different shades of greens which adds amazing contrast to his work because the colors just bring the piece to life making it a reference for what nature should look like. Sometimes i feel that his work can also be over saturated which could be related to the camera that he used when the photos were taken. I will be taking inspiration from his work as i think i can apply his thought process to mine.
I have discovered his work to be very sharp and full of different shades of greens which adds amazing contrast to his work because the colors just bring the piece to life making it a reference for what nature should look like. Sometimes i feel that his work can also be over saturated which could be related to the camera that he used when the photos were taken. I will be taking inspiration from his work as i think i can apply his thought process to mine.