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Beaux Arts Scenery vs. Landscape Photography

Greetings,

In another thread here: http://tinyurl.com/6xlerbp
Bob was asking the question what he can do to develop vision, and as I think this is a matter of art, I post this here. I am constantly pondering on the visual representation of landscapes in photographic arts.

As per G. Eckbo (1967) Landscape can be understood as an abstract concept in four categories.

I
Social Landscapes - The context of local, regional and world wide relations forms an aspect

II
Physical Landscapes - Surrounds us, is all pervasive and the product of interaction between nature and people

III
Economic Landscapes - They determine how well or less well we live.

IV
Cultural Landscapes - They include the creative contributions of a given time.

While this is from an architectural background, I find it interesting in a photographic context. To me personally, Alain Briot is a good example for those who apply Beaux Arts movement styles to their photography. It is carefully planned and executed, and in a sense also richly decorated.

In a conversation I had with Michael Reichmann after a day of shooting in Algonquin, we agreed that Alain is more a farmer type vs. a hunter type photographer, Michael in contrast and beyond the slightest shadow of a doubt clearly is a hunter, a very experienced hunter I might add. :)

In a nutshell, the farmer applies a lot of patience and waits for a certain light or atmosphere to set the scene he chose, then after shooting he often applies a multitude of techniques to emphasize his vision. The hunter is more a instinct driven shooter who does not rest for long at one particular spot, but quickly moves on in search of the next visually stunning vista. Often I found that hunters will go through much less trouble applying 'beaux arts style' post processing to their work.

I remember another conversation I had with Magnums President Stuart Franklin some years ago in Duesseldorf, we were talking about great personal losses in photographic work and I shared with him that I lost more than 1,000 film shots that I made as a R&D consultant in the ex Eastern German chemical and pharmaceutical production facilities immediately after the wall broke down in Germany. This was a vivid contrast to what I call beaux arts photography, it had documentary character and a certain amount of obsession with the subject, the insanity of human production destroying entire landscape habitats for decades. In this type of photography I acted like a hunter, shot instinctively and without knowing at this time, documented an era of ruthless and inconsiderate chemical production.

I intend to think that we go through phases of being more of a hunter and at times more of a farmer, often reflecting our own life circumstances of course, but also reflecting the development of a personal vision and style.

The commercial value is an entirely different matter of course, and here a photographer has to make a choice, whether his vision and style follows commercial trends or not.

Thinking about the films that I lost, if I had them available today, I'd dedicate them to a single exhibition, and I would apply certain beaux arts post processing techniques available in todays digital realm, not knowing whether commercial success would follow, but ruthlessly, and without commercial consideration emphasizing my own vision.

In developing vision, it may help you to change the position for a while, look at your own way of working, and if you find you are a hunter, be a farmer for a while, vice versa. - New perspectives! -

Best
Georg
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
George,

Interesting and useful observations. I think we can get too carried away with trying to deveop a personal style - we've discussed this before and the danger is that we equate a particular look or set of processing steps (or capture medium) to being a personal style or vision. All any of these things are, it seems to me, are tools or vehicles to allow us to record and express what we wish as clearly and articulately as possible, accepting the limitations of a visual medium.

Now I have my own views about much of the processing that is carried out today and feel that it actually devalues some of the real strengths of photography. Other will disagree:)

MR is clearly a hunter - I saw a bit of video of him on a boat in India with his 70-300 DO IS photographing life on the banks and in the river around him and you could very easily draw a parallel between that and some imperial/royal hunter shooting tigers from his elephant 150 years ago.

Mike
 
All any of these things are, it seems to me, are tools or vehicles to allow us to record and express what we wish as clearly and articulately as possible, accepting the limitations of a visual medium.
.... or learning and enhancing the unique way this silent language offers us to articulate our views.

Now I have my own views about much of the processing that is carried out today and feel that it actually devalues some of the real strengths of photography. Other will disagree:)
I certainly won't disagree with you on that!

MR is clearly a hunter - I saw a bit of video of him on a boat in India with his 70-300 DO IS photographing life on the banks and in the river around him and you could very easily draw a parallel between that and some imperial/royal hunter shooting tigers from his elephant 150 years ago.
LOLOL 'tis a good one!
 

Alain Briot

pro member
I agree with Georg & Michael's description of my approach. The way I put it is hunter/gatherer vs agriculturalist, a reference to the development of native cultures in the US southwest and throughout most of the world.

However, regardless of whether one farms or gathers and hunt, a certain amount of opportunism is necessary. You never know when something is going to happen, so you have to be ready to take what you get. That's why a 100% 'agriculturalist' approach is not possible in landscape photography.
 
I agree with Georg & Michael's description of my approach. The way I put it is hunter/gatherer vs agriculturalist, a reference to the development of native cultures in the US southwest and throughout most of the world.

However, regardless of whether one farms or gathers and hunt, a certain amount of opportunism is necessary. You never know when something is going to happen, so you have to be ready to take what you get. That's why a 100% 'agriculturalist' approach is not possible in landscape photography.

Shhh.... don't give away the most guarded secrets.... ....to be there when it happens!

;)

P.S.
Looks like the smiley police disabled the nice visual context sensitive mood articulations. Well, you know how I meant it anyways. LOL
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
Of course, there has long been antipathy between nomadic hunter gatherers and static agrarians:) Each has a different requirement of the land they use and the competition leads to antagonism.
 
Of course, there has long been antipathy between nomadic hunter gatherers and static agrarians --->:) <--- ts ts ts! LOL Each has a different requirement of the land they use and the competition leads to antagonism.

Hehehe, yeah well, occasionally I experienced that there are some analogies to be observed amongst photographers.
 

Joe Hardesty

New member
I have noticed that the terms "vision" and "photographic style" are often used synonymously, but for me they are two distinctly different things.

For me, vision is seeing a photograph before the fact. It is more like dreaming up ideas. It might be an idea that comes when reading, watching TV, or just relaxing in thought. Or it might be an idea to return to spot under a different set of conditions. Similarly, it might be an idea for a different post-processing.

Photographic style, on the other hand, is more about what defines my work to the outside world. The sometimes hidden characteristic that makes my work cohesive and hopefully somewhat distinctive.

A few years ago, I got so caught-up in the concept of photographic style that I did an experiment. I took 20 of my best/favorite shots and presented them to friends/associates with one simple question: "Given the 20 photos as a whole, how would describe it and/or what do you see as the overriding characteristics. The answers were quite insightful and helped me refine and focus my future work.

Submitted for what it is worth.
 
Good points Joe.

I would not be too worried about 'personal style', it is something you develop inevitably, but in the midst of a few billion people with cameras, it might be a little hard to stand out as recognizable.

Then again, take Nick Brand for example.

http://www.nickbrandt.com/portfolio.cfm?nK=8877&nS=0&nL=1

A distinct style which he successfully made his signature. However, today you find tutorials all over the place, how to process pictures Nick Brand style. I guess style may be a short lived thing. It is a funny thing with style in deed, once it was successful, reached a certain amount of people, it then is in danger to become a trend, and trends are short lived.

Vision on the other hand can have much wider scope. It often starts with a simple idea that develops into a bigger idea, eventually turns into a project, and before you know it, you work on articulating your vision.

To me all this is very personal, and neither style nor vision is open to criticism as both is a matter of personal taste and decision. It is legitimate of course for critics to pass their remarks, apply their methods of interpretation and standards of evaluation, but I intend to think that the majority is made up for the purpose of theorizing only, intellectual masturbation.

With the billions of cameras on this planet, I doubt that there is anything left that has not been photographed yet, except in the deepest Amazon forest or miles underwater may be. Now we have Abe Lincoln photographed how many million times, and along comes a well known photographer, takes a picture, a critic passes his remarks and swooosh, 40x60inch USD 35,000, only 12 available.

LOL, it's a funny world isn't it?
 
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