In my avocation as a photographer, I understand a landscape as a particular location, or the view from a particular location, at a point in time.
In my vocation as an ecologist whose work and professional passions frequently focus on landscape-scale ecology, I understand a landscape as a space defined by the functioning of a dynamic set of systems of connected and overlapping processes. As a landscape ecologist, I don't tend to view the subject matter in most of what we call "landscape photography" as landscapes. I would be more inclined to categorize them as "nature photography," along with photographs of trees or flowers or wildlife. I've struggled with this dilemma on and off for over 30 years, and it's often been a factor in driving me to set aside landscape photography and focus on other genres instead.
However, in planning some projects for this summer, I really feel a desire to try capturing landscapes as I understand them from my ecologist's perspective. I'm particularly interested in making imagery that communicates how the moment in time at a given location is influenced by current or previous conditions - both natural and anthropogenic - at other locations, and in making imagery that communicates a process within a space rather than a condition at a location. I have some ideas for how to go about that. Most involve sequential series of images, but others are double exposures with combinations of fast and slow shutter speeds and/or differing DOF, or exposing the same sheet of film in a view camera then a pinhole camera, or using masks to create series of partially overlapped images on the same sheet of film. Needless to say, it will take some experimenting to get to my destination.
With that background, I'm interested in hearing any relevant thoughts, ideas, or discussion. Some particular questions I have are:
1. Do you have other suggestions for approaches I might consider to explore those concepts?
2. Do you know of other photographers doing work along these lines that I might look at for inspiration?
3. How do you perceive landscapes, and how does that influence your photography?
Or, if you're thinking what a friend told me yesterday, "You're over-analyzing. Just shut up and go take pictures," that's OK too. Thanks in advance for any ideas or discussion.
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