From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 12/22/02-12:37:11 AM Z
On Sat, 21 Dec 2002, Shannon Stoney wrote:
> Of course J B Jackson thought that the human impact on the landscape was the
> most interesting part of the study of landscape, and he considered strip
> malls and burger drive throughs and gas stations to be as interesting as
> trees and rocks.
Who is J B Jackson ? Of course just trees and rocks by themselves without
a gas station or garbage pail, or trailer park or wrecked auto parts are
same old same old. Sure, trees are pretty, but IMO all the good trees have
been taken -- so what else is new?
Trying to remember where I read in the last few days that *real* landscape
requires something human or built by human ... possibly the article about
the Japanese scrolls in recent NY Times. Sounds Japanese anyway. Or maybe
Chinese ?
But the notion that I can't be a landscape photographer unless I follow a
certain orthodoxy in subject & composition, an orthodoxy apparently
prescribed by one, is um --- very special. Or that I can't be a Democrat
or Republican either for that matter, unless I know what those parties
mean.
Were that the case, each party would have about 27 "members," but as it
happens, I can be either (or other) just by signing up when I register to
vote.... I'm a landscape photographer if I should (in a moment of abandon)
declare myself a landscape photographer. But by whatever name, I would
hope never EVER to make a photograph by formula.
Meanwhile, civics lesson: Whoever registers as an "Independent" is
throwing his/her vote away-- or a good part of it, as the figures show is
increasingly the trend. In many locations, for many offices, the primary
is definitive. If you don't vote there, you have no say. You can vote
however you like in the general election.
But the point here, to continue the party analogy-- is that local chapters
of national parties are very different. For example, Republicans in
Vermont or NYC or Nassau are generally different from Republicans in, say,
South Carolina or Texas.
Same for landscapes.
J.
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