crafted ku # 5 - 2 for 1

Drive thru - phone orders only • click to embiggenOne of the primary reasons for which I started blogging was to have a conversation about photography. The emphasis has been on 'landscape' and, over the 6 months since The Landscapist has been around, the notion of 'landscape' has evolved, in my mind, to a somewhat broader meaning than the 'traditional' idea of landscape photography.

Much of this transition has come about because of my 'thinking out-loud' here on The Landscapist and your reactions and responses to it. To those of you who have contributed to that process, pro and con - thanks very much. Your feedback and opinions have been much appreciated.

That said, where all this has lead to for me is this - I now have a much refined focus and sense of purpose for my photography. To wit:

For much of my adult life I have been drawn to the Adirondacks simply because of its natural beauty and my first photographic impulse after moving here was to picture that beauty. I have gone about doing that in a very personal way - picturing, in my own pecular photographic way, what I thought and felt was important and meaningful. In that sense I feel that I have accomplished much of what I set out to do - discover more about myself and my relationship to and with the natural world. Along the way I also think that I have created pictures which meet Robert Adams' three verities of landscape pictures - geography, autobiography, and metaphor.

But, time marches on and now I think that photography ain't worth the effort if it's all just about me. For sure, I have been trying (and succeeding) to 'communicate' with others on my path to personal discovery, however, I have had a feeling that something important has been 'missing' in my landscape photography.

That is why this recently struck a chord - Peter Galassi, the chief curator of photography at MOMA, said about the work of Barry Frydlender: the '...open descriptiveness of [his] style, which has its core the notion that facts are symbols, full of socially interpretive information ...', and, his pictures demonstrate a "... willingness to address a big question outside of [him]self."

I want to include in my pictures a big question outside of myself. That question for me is humankind's relationship to the land, aka, 'nature' because, IMO, there is probably no bigger question for our times.

I have also realized that by picturing as I go about my daily life in a park - which happens to be not only the largest wilderness east of the Mississippi but also the largest state park in the lower 48 (bigger than Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Everglades and Yosemite Nat'l parks combined) - I am creating a diary about one of the planet's few examples of a functioning, not theoretical, sustainable economy.

The notion of a sustainable economy flies in the face of our current economic model, as practiced by both producers and consumers, which emphasises desire over need and depletion over conservation. If we don't want things to change for the worse, then things must change.

I want to be part of a change for the better and as David Hockney has opined; 'If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he's really needed.'

So, there you have it. I am not changing the name of my blog to My Life in a Park but that is where my picturing is headed. I do think, however, that that will be the title of my book.

FYI a good read about Robert Adams