landscape
Alternative realities
There is now a broad spectrum of aesthetics, concepts and ideologies currently being expressed
by photographers. The camera is far from a purely objective recording medium. It is capable of
recording a photographer’s personal vision and can be turned on the familiar and exotic, the real
and surreal. This discriminating and questioning eye is frequently turned towards the urban and
suburban landscapes the majority of us now live in. It is used to question the traditional portrayal
of the rural landscape (romantic and idyllic) as a mythical cliché. It explores the depiction of the
natural landscape for many urban dwellers as a mysterious location, viewed primarily through the
windscreen of the car and from carefully selected vantage points. Photographers such as Martin
Parr now present different views of familiar locations and offer alternative realities. Landscape
is used frequently as a political tool, refl ecting the values of society. The landscape traditionally
portrayed as being unifi ed and harmonious may now be portrayed as confused and cluttered and
in turn express the confl ict between expectation and reality.
Photographers also explore their personal relationship with their environment using the camera as
a tool of discovery and revelation. To make a photograph is to interact and respond to the external
stimuli that surround us. We may respond by creating images that conform to current values and
expectations or we may create images that question these values. To question the type of response
we make and the type of image we produce defi nes who we are and what we believe in.
ACTIVITY 2
Find two landscape photographs that question social values or act as a metaphor for personal
issues that the photographer is trying to express. Discuss whether the communication is clear or
ambiguous and how this communication is conveyed.Dreams will come true - Matthew Orchard