Landscape
This week I thought it would be beneficial to think about the traditions of landscape photography since my work has started to move away from the grungy street photography into more of a alien surrealistic landscape. Traditionally photographers had to travel to far-away places, hauling hundreds of pounds of equipment, to capture images that their government wanted: “an exotic and majestic land shaped by awesome natural forces, unpopulated and ready for American settlement [2].” But before even that tradition was the tradition of painting. It took a while before the landscape gained acceptance in the painting world, it was around the 17th century that the idealized landscape gained popularity. “In a classical landscape the positioning of objects was contrived; every tree, rock, or animal was carefully placed to present [1]. While the the traditions of painting differ from those of photography, which was primarily used for documenting, even photographers manipulated in the darkroom giving use a more painterly vision of the images. In fact Ansel Adams was a master darkroom manipulator. I think it’s important that I am not concerned solely with documenting but enhancing the feeling or mood that I get from an image in the treatment of the image.
[1] "Landscapes, Classical to Modern Curriculum (Education at the Getty)." The Getty. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2010. <http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/landscapes/background1.html>.
[2] Sandweiss, Martha A.. "Laura Gilpin and the Tradition of American Landscape Photography." College of Liberal Arts : Purdue University. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2010. <http://www.cla.purdue.edu/waaw/sandweiss/>.
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