RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Photography and Landscape Studies
JF Landscape Journal
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 1
OP 12
DO 10.3368/lj.8.1.1
VO 8
IS 1
A1 Tim Davis
YR 1989
UL http://lj.uwpress.org/content/8/1/1.abstract
AB Geographers and landscape historians rely ever more heavily on the photographic image as a pseudo-scientific device to illustrate, analyze, and interpret the human-made landscape. Recent trends suggest that the landscape studies field has even begun to accept self-consciously “artistic” photography as a valid form of landscape interpretation. Despite this increased emphasis on photographic communication, landscape analysts have rarely paused to consider the ways in which photography may affect the ways in which the landscape is seen, interpreted, and recorded. This paper examines the historical relationship between photography and landscape studies, speculates on the camera's effect upon landscape valuation and perception, and suggests that creative photography's potential for combining poetry with phenomenological accuracy makes it an ideal medium for communicating the symbolic and experiential qualities of geographic places.