Large Format Landscapes

[Peter Lewin]

His opinion, for which I have only the greatest respect, is that the only viable and lasting photography is of the human condition. While I have never sought any human artifact or other indication of our presence in my images, I tend to feel that pure images of the landscape are really personal, theraputic and, as stunning as they may be, do not rise to the level of impact that say does portrait photography our photojournalism.

I partially agree with the section of PDM's post which I quoted above. As human beings, I believe our emotional responses to other human beings, in person or in image, differ from our emotional responses to nature, objects, etc. All images may be beautiful, even awe-inspiring, but I still think those emotions are of a different type than our responses to photographs of people. Images of people are a direct comment on the human condition, while other images are at best indirect comments.

However, while I think our purely emotional responses may be greater to images of people, I don't believe that translates into saying that only images of people are viable and lasting. Trite as some of us may find them now, photographs like Ansel Adams' "Moonrise" or Weston's "Pepper" will last as icons just as long as Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" from the Depression, to think of an iconic portrait. And since PDM was quoting a collector of art, I suspect Pollack's drip paintings, or Picasso's abstract portraits are just as long-lasting and iconic as the Dutch "Old Masters."

In sum, nature and portraits evoke different emotional responses, but both responses are equally valid and important.

[pdmoylan]

PDM -

So, why would this be true of photography and not the other arts? Not to pick a fight with you or your friend, but I would think landscape painting would be as therapeutic as landscape photography. Is religious art or other depictions of the human form a "higher" form of painting?

I have no pictures containing a human being in any of my current work. I've photographed many people in the past. I worked for a newspaper many years ago. I find nature to be a constant source of wonder and renewal, so that's where I go. I was a pretty decent "people photographer." I think I connect better with the land.

Peter, your comments are well taken. I think what he is saying is that photography as a medium has its ultimate strength and value in reportage, while other genres are better suited to the canvas. I would not go so far to say that LF landscapers are simply emulating art rather than creating it, but his comments to me about my images fall off a cliff after but an adjective or two. I am not discounting what we do with LF, but I do see his application of the history of all artistic endeavor and the longevity of meaning in an image. Reportage can cross the boundary of many generations and be something other than a "beautiful" or simply an historical image. I suppose for me landscape photography is rather more self-absorbed/internalized, while the best reportage is clearly about the subject/externalized, not what we bring to the subject. Enough said for me.

PDM

[OCM]

Hi.

This is my first photo here.

Panorama's window
Fomapan 200@200 sheet 4x5" Sinar F2
Rodenstock Sironar -N 210mm, F32, 1/15
Developed with Fomadon Excel (stock) 6'

Locate in Mediana de Aragón (Zaragoza), Spain.

[Jody_S]

Hi.

This is my first photo here.


Panorama's window
Fomapan 200@200 sheet 4x5" Sinar F2
Rodenstock Sironar -N 210mm, F32, 1/15
Developed with Fomadon Excel (stock) 6'

Locate in Mediana de Aragón (Zaragoza), Spain.[/CENTER]

Oooh! Please post more!

[Richard Hofacker]

I'm afraid my innocent comments addressed to Eddo, about checking out Edward Weston and Ansel Adams, were misunderstood by other folks in the forum. I certainly did not mean to sound patronizing. I understood Eddo was new to landscape photography and was asking others to post some sample photos to serve as inspiration, so I thought he might not know about those masters. I was amused by some of the crackling comments (it's the first time I've been compared to a troll, although my late wife might have agreed at times), but I've certainly been called worse in my 86 years. One of my former bosses was an ex-combat photographer in the Pacific Theater of WWII, and his specialty was screaming at the unlucky band of brothers employed as industrial advertising illustrators at Interstate Photographers in New York City. All our work was large format, but because we shot everything on location, we tended to travel with 4x5 rather than anything larger.

But back to my note about my preference to include a small human figure in my attempts at landscape photography. Many, if not most, of the classic landscape painters of the past preferred to include small figures -- a hunter, a pair of walkers, lolling lovers, etc. -- and others liked to introduce animals or birds (think of Van Gogh and the crows over a field of grain). I simply said it is my preference, but some of the thread's readers seem to feel I've committed heresy and am urging all to abandon their principles and fall into my line. No way! As far as "the human hand" is involved, even Ansel Adams occasionally selected subjects such as "Windmill and thundercloud, near Cimarron, New Mexico, ca. 1958", and "Moonrise Hernandez", and "Saint Francis Church, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. ca.1939". Edward Weston was swamped with negatives he created on trips commissioned by the federal government's Works Projects Administration and the Guggenheim because he did not stop shooting while traveling as long as three weeks at a time, mailing the undeveloped film back to his son Brett. After more than two years of that, he reportedly was stuck in the darkroom making prints. We'll never know how many he discarded. But he did a lot of different photography besides the nudes and vegetable studies. His landscapes started in the 1920s and continued through the 1930s with sand dunes at Oceano and geometric plantings in "Tomato Field, Big Sur, 1937". In the 1940s he embraced the Point Lobos area in a surge of work characterized by reviewers as "landscapes", although I doubt that description would be accepted by some of this thread's posters.

[StoneNYC]

Hi.

This is my first photo here.

Panorama's window
Fomapan 200@200 sheet 4x5" Sinar F2
Rodenstock Sironar -N 210mm, F32, 1/15
Developed with Fomadon Excel (stock) 6'

Locate in Mediana de Aragón (Zaragoza), Spain.

How come all there new to LF guys are so much better at taking photos than me? It's not fair!!

[mikebarger]

How come all there new to LF guys are so much better at taking photos than me? It's not fair!!

Amen!

[Keith Fleming]

My gut feeling is that while OCM may be new to the forum, that is not his first large format image. OCM, that's a superb example of great seeing and a super image.

Keith

[ScottPhotoCo]

Well, my working toward creating a successful LF landscape image continues.

The image I posted above was actually the first photograph of the day. This one was my last one of the day. After wandering around the Oceana Dunes for a few hours the sun was beginning to set and as I'm not huge of sunset photos and I had one remaining piece of film I decided to break all of the "rules" and try shooting directly into the sun and see if I could catch just the highlights on the top of the dunes and a little detail. It seems that I got lucky.


Oceana Dunes, CA by ScottPhoto.co, on Flickr

This next image was made a few minutes prior to the one above. I was walking around looking at the incredible light brushing across the sand when a glare on top of an upcoming dune caught my attention. I walked toward it and saw two plastic bottles discarded on the sand. Honestly, it made me quite angry and I was walking up to pick them up when I noticed how beautifully the wind had pushed the sand around them. I didn't know if there was an interesting image here but I set up the camera so that the light was just coming across the sand and the top of the bottle and clicked the shutter. I'm not sure if this qualifies as landscape or still life but I'm including it here anyway.


Oceana Dunes, CA by ScottPhoto.co, on Flickr


Deardorff 4x5 Special
Kodak 10" Commercial Ektar
Fuji Acros 100 4x5 film


Tim
www.ScottPhoto.co

[jp]

I had one remaining piece of film I decided to break all of the "rules" and try shooting directly into the sun and see if I could catch just the highlights on the top of the dunes and a little detail. It seems that I got lucky.
Tim
www.ScottPhoto.co

Good idea! It worked well.