nici /art 80 d /landscape

Due in Section: Week of May 9-11

Landscape Assignment

• Since the very beginnings of photography, the Landscape image has been a common artistic motif. From the farm views of Henry Fox Talbot—one of the originators of the photographic image, to the photographs of the American Civil War by Matthew Brady, images that document or tell a story about the physical world around us also serve as mirrors of our world and our culture.
• Later practitioners of the Landscape photograph explored the inherent beauty of the natural, and built, world. Their images were less about documenting, and more about using the world around them as their palette, and exploring formal issues: the play of light and darkness, the interaction of colors and shape. Landscape photographers such as Edward Weston, Laura Gilpin, Eliot Porter, Alfred Stieglitz and Ansel Adams come to mind.
• In the late 20th century, landscape photographers busied themselves with the enigmas of the world around them and the many ways, often contradictory, that humans interact with the physical world. Documentation, politics and irony became the primary fodder of contemporary landscape photographers. The grand view was replaced by the view of the landscape being changed, abused, or constructed. Sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, these new photographers presented their views with an eye toward creating a conversation about what they saw occurring around them. Stephen Shore, Robert Adams, and Lewis Baltz took up conversations about the natural landscape, while Lee Friedlander, Joe Deal and others turned their gaze to the new cities and suburbia at the end of the century. Where the early practitioners presented their work as statements on the landscapes, these new artists presented their images as open-ended dialogues.
• For this shoot, I want you to explore your relationship to the Landscape. How do you view the world around you, and how do you want to present your views. Remember that photography is a visual form of communicating. What is your thesis and how are your chosen images going to support your ideas? As you make your images, think about what you hope they will convey. Are you creating a non-fiction essay through your images, or is it more like a poem? Will you use text or not? What will your viewer come away considering after viewing your project? What will you come away considering? Trust that you have something specific to say and share through your understanding and experience. Consider your relationship to the physical world and create images that flow from this relationship…
• Shoot 1-2, 36 exposure, rolls of Black and White print film. You may either have prints made or a contact sheet. Write a one-page assessment of your project. Be sure to address the areas of the project that you feel best about, what didn't work, and what specifically you sought to convey in your project.

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