Reflection on Landscapes

I cannot say that I find landscapes a very inspiring subject. It just seems to me that the real thing will always be more satisfying than a simple photographic reproduction, no matter how breathtaking and spectacular the picture may be. And so, in order not to set myself up for disappointment, I tried looking at the world in a different way (or rather several). I allotted myself the time to go out to a “scenic” area – I thought it would motivate my desire to take pictures of landscapes. And it did in a way. It gave me the chance to only think about my project, take me away from everything else, and because of this I was able to study what I saw around me.

I think that in the 150+ photos I took, the landscapes became less about what I observed as a passive viewer than about what I placed within them. Obviously with the obstruction photos I was seeing how I could manipulate objects on site (not necessarily manually, but by moving myself and the camera around) to find ways these things could interact with or hinder the other.

I suppose this was sort of the idea I had when I explored placement of horizon line and capturing the sun; with both subjects, I was arranging elements in the frame, often abstracting them, but with the obstruction pictures, this theme took a much more concrete approach. I think because of this they might interact more with the viewer, instead of just creating an abstract canvass to “contemplate.”

Still, I am glad that I took several approaches to photographing landscape, as it lead me to the subject of photographing the sun. I found that I like the eerie near glowing quality of the land created by the very short exposures and the mesmerizing spot of the extremely bright sun-shape captured. I think it may be a subject I shall return to again. In short, an assignment that forced me to reexamine a subject I had dismissed before.