Thoughts on Wells Case Study: Landscape

The way Wells used landscape photography as an example of changing aesthetic was really interesting to me, and I particularly enjoyed this section because it made me think about the ways in which photography traces cultural shifts in time, as represented in ‘genre’.  Her last point to me really stuck- “a range of factors and questions are in play when discussing specific fields of practice. It is productive to analyse genres in terms both of specific historical traditions within visual culture and of contemporary issues and aesthetics” (310).  This point was emphasized by the examples described in the section of flora and fauna photographs; specifically the use of cyanotypes to ‘dis-locate ourselves’. I really appreciated the sentiment that artful photography can be used in an intellectual way to highlight and attract attention to global issues. In this day and age, one major issue is global climate change, and I never really thought about the role photography could play in making the issue, in a way, more ‘tangible’. I had such a strong reaction to the photograph on page 309 by Susan Derges, ‘Larch’. Its shape is abstracted yet formal; you don’t know at first if you are looking at an aerial view of a watershed and the surrounding topography – but you slowly come to realize the pattern cast from the shadow as a tree. I loved the process of comprehending, understanding, reading, and judging this photo. For me, it mimicked the process of detachment; of no longer recognizing nature, due to such an immersion of technology in the 21^st century. I never understood landscape photography as having this engaging capability, even if now it seems relatively obvious. It is a pretty powerful realization.