Ideas about landscapes, Part 2

The "landscape" formally has always been about the "stage." Perhaps the greatest creator of landscapes, Frederick Law Olmsted, made a career out of creating stages, not the least of which was Central Park in New York City, the most contrived of "natural" landscapes that ever has been. Poetic landscapes have been the subject matter of painters and landscape architects alike. While the painting genre was formally recognized in the 15th Century it wasn't until the early 19th Century that the idealistic scenes as depicted in most landscape paintings began to impress on the ideals of society. The elements of compositional rules were similar with forgrounds competing with backdrops, standards in proportion, and even when complete wilderness was depicted there was often an allowance for human occupation or a destination within the image or quite often a description of a voyage from one part of the image to another.

This photograph is another study in this medium that I previously proclaimed little affinity for. The elements of the composition in the forground act to frame the background and the bench is quite a literal invitation to occupy the space but its position and orientation directs the viewer to look back or out of the frame. The elements seem, well, elemental. This (the image in the top right corner) seems nearly identical compostionally though it's not a painting I would say I like. But also consider that Asher B Durand, a 19th Century landscape painter did this similarly composed image a long time before I took that photograph today.

The landscape as a formal exploration is something that continues to be a challenge. Looking at the work of Vancouver photographer Roy Arden is a good example of that, the compositional building blocks are distorted or minimalized and yet the proportions and framing are all too familiar in his photographs, Landfill, being one such example.

I suspect there will be more to this tangent than I first anticipated when I rode out into the bush with a camera on my back a week or so ago.