The Relevance Of Pure Lanscape Photography
The Relevance of Pure Landscape Photography
The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colors and their forms, were then to me
An appetite; a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, nor any interest
Unborrowed from the eye.
Wordsworth
For me a pure landscape image is a reflection of natures’ mutuality or unity .The TAO, an ancient philosophical-take on the question of the nature of reality and our relationship to it, predicted what the modern science of ecology has revealed: that everything is connected and exists in relation to everything else. The idea of community has always appealed to me, especially in an ecological sense: the interaction of living things with one another and with their environment. For me it’s a pageant full of wonder and a landscape represents the totality of that idea.. My most satisfying images result from a feeling of recognition that occurs while observing with a quiet mind . This idea, that nature is to be understood on her own terms, was illustrated in an ancient story from China, in which Chou Mu-shih slept in a boat so that "his dreams might mingle with those of the lotus". It seems suspiciously romantic in a western sense, but the ancient Chinese believed that the lotus had its’ own dreams and not human ones’. Landscape, plants and non-human animals all have lives of their own.
Photographs from Santa Lucia-land: Landscapes of the Central Coast of California.
This group of photographs have been part of past exhibitions presented in association with the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo in an effort to bring attention to the unique and special places on the Central Coast that are vulnerable to development pressures. I believe landscape photography can ‘empower’ the earths’ places; places that cannot speak for themselves. An image can give meaning and value to places taken for granted.
"The inspiration for my landscapes comes from the experience of nature. My objective: simply to reproduce in other minds the impression a scene has made upon mine"
G. Inness
"-honesty no less than intensity of vision, is the prerequisite of a living expression. This means a real respect for the thing in front of him- the fullest realization of this is accomplished without tricks of process or manipulation, through the use of straight photographic methods."
P. Strand
" The great TAO flows everywhere,
All things depend upon it to exist,
but it does not lord over them."
Lao-Tzu
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