For my critical review I intend to review the series Candlestick Point by Robert Blatz.  I had already suggested a review of Blatz to my tutor and he agreed that this was a suitable topic but that I should focus my study onto a single collection aiming for depth over breadth.

I have chosen Candlestick Point as it is closely related to the area of study that has interested me the most in my landscape studies.  That is, man’s impact on the land.  Blatz’s study is of man’s impact to the area of its title.  The images are stark, they are very different to those I reviewed for Burtynsky and his collection Manufactured Landscapes which set out to achieve the same aim, but do so with a strong focus on creating indistrial sublime imagery.  Blatz’s images are stark and whilst one image alone just looks like a scene that is not particularly interesting, the stark nature of the images that is relentless all of the way through the series leaves the viewer, I think, ‘feeling’ the impact that has been created.  

I want to consider how Blatz has achieved that effect as impact to viewer and the thoughts I can provoke is where I want to develop my skills now; moving much further than simply considering technical perfection and the original idea.