What is Landscape

landscape |ˈlan(d)ˌskāp|
noun

1 all the visible features of an area of countryside or land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal : the giant cacti that dominate this landscape | a bleak urban landscape.
a picture representing an area of countryside : [as adj. ] a landscape painter.

What is landscape? This may seem like a question with an obvious answer. However, when polled, random Facebook members came up with the following responses to these questions:

1. Would you define "landscape" as open space? 99% YES


2. Would you define "landscape" as wilderness? 98% YES


3. Would you define "landscape" as any piece of land outdoors? 85% YES


4. When you think of artists who work in the "landscape" who comes to mind?
   
   


5. When you think of "Landscape Photography" what/who comes to mind?
   
   


6. Briefly describe your notion of "landscape."
   
   
   
   1. "Landscape is the natural presentation of the earth/land around you." ~ Kimberly Phipps
   
   
   
   2. "Something that is evocative of landscape, I have photographed rotting food, that I called landscapes, also I have photographed my poison oak so that it resembled a landscape. I have seen images of anatomy and physiology that when it is photographed in such a way it no longer resembles that which it is...and can become a landscape. I think my definition of music is also similar in that respect. I am envisioning vast fields of astroturf, and gigantic foam protuberances. I think that the definition also needs to include the artificial. Consider the man made mountains, beaches, and other simulated natural objects." ~ Kevin Powers
   
   
   
   3. "An expanse of land that can be seen from a single viewpoint." ~ Jimi Merrell
   
   
   
   4. "Landscape is the visual beauty of the natural day-by-day allowance provided by God resulting in His perfect creation. With that said, by this imperfect being on this imperfect planet, there is no landscape left -- man has altered the landscape, above and below, beyond our ability to repair it. The same is true of ourselves, at least until we allow the perfect Gardener to renew our landscape." ~ Dave Douglas
   
   
   
   5. "Landscape is that stuff around my house that continuously grows. I like landscape just as long as I can look at it... but do not have to attend to it." ~ Gregory Phipps
   
   
   
   6. "Landscape is the image that stays in your mind after being somewhere and then remembering the broad views. When I think of the landscape of here - I think of rolling brown hills in summer and rolling green hills in winter. The draw of Yosemite and Glacier Parks are the incredible landscapes. Tahoe: I think of the view from the Flume trail. The biggest sweeping view that takes in the unique beauty of a place." ~ Tania Smith
   
   
   
   7. "In my opinion the most effective landscapes convey a journey through the scene, that's why it could just as readily be a cityscape or a tight macro shot of a few rice grains spread across a floor. I remember being amazed at some of Helmut Newton's work on nude landscapes where he used beautiful lighting effects to create landscapes where the "land" was parts of the human body" ~ John Houston
   
   

As displayed in the aforementioned quotations, there are many interpretations of the term "landscape." However abstract the term becomes, they all seem to reference the vast open space of our land. During the process of assembling my thoughts on "landscape" and what the terms conveys I came across several artists whose work deals within this genre.

Among the most notable visual representations of "landscape" are the images of Ansel Adams. He became famous through his craft and the images he created of our natural world. The work of Adams represents the denotation of "landscape."
  
We are all familiar with the landscape work of Ansel Adams to a certain degree, his rich blacks and perfectly balanced tones. His work shows the vast open splendor of our natural world. However, there are other notable photographers whose work falls within the genre of "landscape" while blurring its boundary lines forcing viewers to reconsider space and our environment.



Similar to the work of Adams is the work of Art Wolf and Colin Prior. Their work exemplifies the vastness of our untouched world in an elegant display, only their images are filled with color. Their work is also a good example of the denotation of "landscape."



In the work of Edward Weston we see a transition from the more denoted pictures of the land to the abstraction of the human figure in such a way as to resemble the landscape. We also see the images that inspired this perspective of the human form.


 
Edward Burtynsky takes a traditional approach to documenting the landscape, only his images reveal the hand of mankind and his effects on our world. His work is visually stunning and yet grotesque. Viewers are drawn into the work through the beauty of the print and sheer size (30" x 40") while repulsed by the grandness of man's impact on our planet. Burtynsky's work captures mounds of tires as if they were the rolling foothills of the Sierras. He captures streams of nickel tailings as if they were natural lava flows. And he reveals the deconstruction of our open space as man exploits Earth's bounty.





Moving in a direction toward the abstraction of landscape we see the work of Noah Wilson. In his Aberrations Series we see what appears to be mythical landscapes. In these images the viewer is left standing with a certain level of curiosity about what has happened in this "land." In his series titled, Partial Landscapes we see latent images that appear shrouded in a fog, incomplete and hyper real. The images seem too bright to view causing his viewers to squint in an attempt to discover missing information.



In his statement above, Kevin Powers referenced images that he has created where the human body was photographed in such a way as to "no longer resemble that which it is." By isolating the surface of the skin with an extreme close-up photograph, this image titled, "Self Portrait, Poison Oak Blister" resembles active lava flows or the surface of another planet.



In subsequent posts I will continue this dialog regarding the notions of "landscape." In the meantime, what is your interpretation of "landscape?"