Image captions for portrait images

Image captions for portrait images

To accompany my final portrait images I thought it would be a good idea to create some extended image captions, similar to the style of Edward Burtynsky. Burtynsky often reflected on his personal thoughts of a scene, along with facts and things of interest related to the area in question. Doing this adds an extra dynamic to the image and can influence the spectators’ perception and thoughts regarding the subject. While I won’t be handing a physical copy of this in with the images come deadline day, this is a perfect accompaniment for the images when I exhibit them at the end of the level 6 year.

 

Kielder water:

Kielder Water and its forest surroundings are completely man made, the successor of land that was once used for farming, a school and a railway. The way that the positive and negative effects of the construction of the dam are perceived and dealt with shows us how our priorities have developed for our need of power and its security. While the reservoir produces an average of 20,000 MWh of electricity per year, which is a considerable amount of clean energy, the landscape of the river downstream is altered for ever. The change in temperature near the base of the dam and the increased metal content of the water throughout the river makes it difficult for the salmon to dig their spawning redds and also for Black Fly and Mayfly larva to attach themselves to the rocks which effects the wider environment, not just the river ecosystem.  

Teesside Industrial Park (Huntsman Tioxide):

The reality of this scene is a contradiction of what our first impressions would lead us to believe. The long pipes and industry in the background potentially make us conclude that we’ve invaded this landscape with our industry and our expansive nature. However in reality, the image is created in a scene where nature and industries relationship is an improving one, despite the reputation of tees valley area. The number of seal pups sighted in the area had been rising consistently over the last five years.  In 2013 there were 22 healthy pups which is the highest recorded number in a single breeding season. This all points to a healthier River Tees, a vital resource for both industry and

Melton Bottom chalk quarry (Omya)

The Melton bottom chalk quarry extracts and processes Chalk (calcium carbonate) to produce a range of products that are used in a variety of industrial applications. The amount of earth moved within this operation is testament to the quality of the ground, but also our desire to capitalise on varying resources despite the amount of effort and money used to do so.   Ironically the south section of the quarry is now a protected ecological site; this almost doesn’t make sense. It could be said that as a society in some circumstances we are capable of prioritising the wider environment over economic gain, but in others, for example larger scale projects we still don’t see environmental protection as priority.  Perhaps this needs to change if we want to ensure the best possible future.

Drax power station:

Drax power station is a symbol of the UK’s status as one of Western Europe’s largest energy producers through coal.  I has been recorded to burn around 30,000 tonnes of coal a day which makes 4,000MW (7% of the UK’s needs). But it could also be seen as a symbol of the UK’s primary contribution to the global warming issue. Drax was built with the intention of using local coal from the rich supply that would have been the Selby Coalfields however it was shut down. This meant that over half the coal supply came from South Africa and Eastern Europe, and it continues to do so. The plant is the UK’s largest emitter of CO2, about 22m tonnes a year, the equivalent to the whole of Sweden’s emissions plus a bit more. Drax intends by 2016 to have 3 of its 6 units running on biomass, claiming that this is a cleaner more efficient method of energy production. Drax’s biomass fuelled furnaces produce three percent more CO2 than coal and this is before the biomass pellets are transported from America and Canada (a 3,800 mile trip). Taking this into consideration biomass produces 20 percent more greenhouse gas emission than coal.