Musings on landscape photography from a landscape ecologist's point of view

[bthphoto]

Not sure why you are letting what is essentially semantics dictate what you photograph.

I disagree that it's essentially semantics, but I do understand that it can easily seem that way to people without a scientific understanding of landscape ecology. Part of the challenge I see is making images that communicate the substantive difference between a picture of a mountain or a field, and a picture of the processes and systems shaping what's going on there. It's actually a pretty daunting challenge, which is why I've so often just set it aside.

Also, I don't think I'm totally alone in wrestling with it. Consider this quote by David Bayles (from https://photography.org/interview/da...les-interview/)

"DB: I grew up as a landscape photographer under the influence of Brett Weston and Ansel Adams. I spent a lot of time with Brett and some time with Ansel. That kind of photography gradually became un-nourishing to me and remains so to this day. The reason is pretty simple. That whole tradition of photography is not well connected to the ecological processes of the land. It’s not well-informed ecologically. The West Coast landscape tradition is a visual arts tradition. It’s not a tradition that’s deeply involved with the way natural systems work as ecosystems. Despite the fact that Ansel and his influence on the Sierra Club have had a profound effect on the world through the use of a photograph as a conservation device, it’s not a well-informed approach. So I withdrew. I withdrew from exhibiting, for several years from making landscape photographs at all, and now, 20 years later I’m back with my first gesture of what I think a landscape photograph ought to be about."

[faberryman]

"That whole tradition of photography is not well connected to the ecological processes of the land. It’s not well-informed ecologically. The West Coast landscape tradition is a visual arts tradition. It’s not a tradition that’s deeply involved with the way natural systems work as ecosystems."

Like the West Coast landscape tradition, I see photography as a visual art so I don't have the same concerns.

[John Kasaian]

I take pictures of places where I'm happy.
I figure that if I'm happy there, maybe the viewer would be too.
But since the viewer wasn't there, maybe sharing my photograph of the place will make them happy.

[rdeloe]

Thanks @bthphoto, @6x6TTL and @jp for the feedback. Glad you enjoyed them. I took enormous pleasure making them, which is part of it for me.

And @John Kasaian, I just want to say that's a really solid way of looking at things! Cheers.

[Drew Wiley]

Well, at least in the Occidental world, the godfather of this would be Eliot Porter's visual interpretation of Thoreau. But I don't think it's wise to get tied down to any philosophical model. Dissect and explain things too much and you end up with nothing. What I like about large format photography is that it slows you down and forces you to look at things. Avoid a pigeonhole mentality. Throw out all the pet terms like landscape and art and environmental photography and just start intently looking at things, especially through that ground glass. Eventually a bond forms.

[bthphoto]

Well, at least in the Occidental world, the godfather of this would be Eliot Porter's visual interpretation of Thoreau. But I don't think it's wise to get tied down to any philosophical model. Dissect and explain things too much and you end up with nothing. What I like about large format photography is that it slows you down and forces you to look at things. Avoid a pigeonhole mentality. Throw out all the pet terms like landscape and art and environmental photography and just start intently looking at things, especially through that ground glass. Eventually a bond forms.

Are you suggesting that Eliot Porter's interpretation of Thoreau captures the ecological context of the landscape? If so, I strongly disagree. I would say his work is just photos of nature shot at the right distance to see the trees rather than the forest. I don't see anything of systems and processes in them.

[tgtaylor]

In the beginning of Western photography in the US it was necessarily concerned with both describing the unique landscape of the west [U]and/U] depicting the economic possibilities it provided. This was in the beginning of westward migration when reliable information on the area was eagerly sought by potential immigrants. Charles Roscoe Savage was one of the prominent photographer in that era. As "amateur photography" blossomed - fueled by technology and the availability of photographic gear, "artistic" sentiments rather than the earlier informative and descriptive criterion became to dominate landscape photography:

...It is the power of seeing and deciding what shall be done, on which will depend the value and importance of any work, whether canvas or negative, Dryden says, "The most important thing in art is to know what is most beautiful"...We may claim for the photograph the ability to create imagery which calls forth ideas and sentiments of the beautiful... - John Moran, 1865.

Thomas

[Leszek Vogt]

Visual exploration IMO, and photography (landscape, etc) is sort of joined at the hip with that.

Les

[jamesaz]

Perhaps narrowing the scope slightly could help. Something illustrating land management techniques and relationship to systems or urban/wild land interface? Just what came to mind. Good luck.

[CreationBear]

Are you suggesting that Eliot Porter's interpretation of Thoreau captures the ecological context of the landscape? If so, I strongly disagree. I would say his work is just photos of nature shot at the right distance to see the trees rather than the forest. I don't see anything of systems and processes in them.

I think I understand (and suspect I admire) where you're coming from, but I think you might be butting your head up against a category error--a lot of ad copy gets written about photographers and "capturing" this and that, but it seems to me that silver halide is a very inefficient transmitter of intellectual concepts. Allusive of them, sure--in the hands of a genius, the entering wedge of the sublime, absolutely--but the real heavy lifting gets done elsewhere, specifically in the literary artifacts of "natural historians" like Virgil, Thoreau, and Leopold.