Landscapes and Why?

It's hard to explain as to why someone likes being in the landscape, more often than not, it stems from a sense of escapism. 

From drawing up a simple mind map of the subject, ‘Landscapes’, it is possible to see the various rationales as to why people feel the need/urge to be in them.

Landscapes

·       The ability to escape from modern day life

·       Natural beauty

·       A lack of people

·       Back to nature

·       Variety of landscapes

·       The scenery in the landscapes varies (weather and year dependent) 

If we take the first one, ‘The ability to escape from modern life’, we are then thrown another question.

 

‘Why do people feel the need to escape modern day life?’

This would lead onto various factors as to why:

·       Romanticised idea of landscapes

·       Something to aspire for (work towards)

·       Back to nature

·       A place of relaxation

·       Emotional connection to a landscape

The last one, ‘Emotional connection to a landscape’, is delving more into the realms of psychology. Looking at/being in/taking pictures of landscapes are all capable of giving us emotional connections to an area. In the case of taking pictures of landscapes, this can often be quite cathartic as it enables the photographer to use the landscape to more vividly express themselves in a way that they could probably not have done before with ease.

Contemporary Themes II

An Introduction to the module and 'Critical Discourse'

For this module, I have to choose one or two topics that were covered in the Contemporary Themes I module from last year which can also link in with the work that was covered in the Finding Your Place module. The clearest link between the modules that I can find is the use of ‘Landscapes/Trees’ in the images. The Finding Your Place work involved close-up images of tree barks whereas the work that was covered in Contemporary Themes I, one of the projects undertaken was a response to a John Blakemore lecture and the finished work utilised multiple and long exposures to capture movement in the trees.

This module also introduced us to the idea of ‘Critical Discourse’. From what I can gather of this term, it means that instead of just researching ‘Landscapes/ Landscape Photographers’, you should look around this subject and how it can be linked in with various social concepts. For example;

Landscapes ---- Nature ---- Modernity ---- The City

All of these social concepts can be linked in together (I think that’s right anyway!). As well as critically analysing this higher level of research, we should also look at how Critical Discourse can influence both our photographic approach and practice.