From: epona (acolyta@napc.com)
Date: 09/06/02-03:22:54 PM Z
Jack,
I gotta move to California and take your class. Sounds amazing.
Cheers,
Christine
Jack Fulton wrote:
> > This makes me wonder: what does everyone on the list think of landscape
> > photography?
>
> I can't write too much here as I must prepare for teaching tomorrow . . in
> my Landscape Photography class called, 'Nevada Plus'. For what it is worth,
> Ansel started our department in 1945. The conversation regarding him by our
> group has echoed many of my own thoughts. However, in the long run, he
> capitalized on where his money came from and what was the simplest. He was a
> terrific man as far as I knew him and I sincerely believe he held a great
> regard for the wilderness though much of him imagery is taken from a 1/2-way
> nearby vehicle.
> As a young married guy in the early 1960's I'd travel with Diane all over
> the Western states. There were not many easy-to-drive roads and few paved
> ones. You can take a paved road to a motel now @ Chinle, AZ and then, twas
> all dirt. Arches, Natural Bridges, Dead Horse Point, Newspaper Rock,
> Hovenweep, Bandolier, most of the Hopi and Navajo nations, oh heck . . .
> dirt roads. You could walk out on Orabai, the oldest continually inhabited
> town in the US and then it was closed to tourists . . to white folks
> primarily, because they couldn't be trusted. It is now only recently
> re-opened and a set of my students in March had one heckuva time there on a
> chilly evening. It's all paved now . . with easy access.
> Today, I take students out for 8 days to Noplace, Nevada'. We sit for a
> day @ Donner Summit where Wm. Keith and Alfred Bierstadt painted. We camp @
> Pyramid Lake where O'sullivan photographed. We travel on to the Black Rock
> Desert where the Burning Man thing happens and cross it, staying @ hot
> springs and eating Basque meals in Winnemucca. We travel down valleys and
> watch stars and sit in a hot spring under darned near freezing nights and
> watch the moon and listen to coyotes. We stay long enough so's the stink of
> the city disappears from the nostrils.
> It is the only thing I truly know that I can 'give' to my students. It is
> an experience in the bosom of Mother Nature where most who pass through are
> scared of the loneliness or afraid if they got off the road they'd get lost
> or die w/a flat tire. Yup SUV's have penetrated it w/out passion. And these
> rapacious ways of the SUV are not aided by their TV adverts.
> Landscape photography is not dead at all. Mark Klett, Bob Dawson, Linda
> Connor, Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Richard Misrach, Thom Joshua Cooper,
> Robt. Glenn Ketchum, Galen Rowell, Lois Connor, Lynn Davis, Wanda
> Hammerbeck, Hamish Fulton, Joseph Sudek all have done interesting
> contemporary work photographing landscape(s). This is different work from
> that seen in the galleries of Carmel-By -The -Sea and Art Wolfe et al. Much
> of that work, though gosh-awful-beautiful is sort of more like Thomas
> Kincaid's paintings sold in Shopping Malls.
> I believe photography of what might be done is simply not done. Many wish
> to go to the familiar special places such as Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and
> other National Parks. Most of those who want to photograph all that rely
> upon the 'master' cameras of large format and maybe even a limited Zone
> System approach w/a small retinue of filters. Yet, most who work in those
> environs rarely stray from the Kodak/Ansel picture sites. Most do not truly
> experience Nature. Most do not camp or live in it for the experience.
> Landscape photography might be compared to routine experiences such as
> cooking or sex. In those desired habits, some like the routine and opt for
> the maccaroni and cheese, Top Ramen, Russian dressing on a salad of iceberg
> lettuce, store bought pies. Let's not get into sexual habits due to the
> amount of space. But, once you understand cooking, you'll want to make it
> better, spice it up in ways not familiar, go out of your way to purchase
> that special something and ultimately make your plate look beautiful. To to
> a little Fulton word play on beautiful, it is about being true to one's
> self: Be A You Till Full. Do not 4x5 cliche it. Go your own way and see it.
> The student who says it is boring follows the crowd and they'll yell their
> displeasure loud. Often the student working with the landscape does not
> receive a critique responsive and understanding.
> Last thing . . we are so urbanized, asphalted, TV'ed, commercialized,
> pro-city, the 'other' world is the place which seems to be harmful. Not only
> is the rural world seemingly in conflict and dangerous to visit but there
> are diseases. The modern city world is where it is at at this point in time.
-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed." -Albert Einstein
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