This is not a book about landscape photography as such but I nevertheless mention it here because it relates to one of the issues that was thrown up by the work that I did for the critical review in Assignment 4: to what extent does an artist’s outsider status, specifically so far as a particular place is concerned, affect or inform their photographs of that place and offer a new perspective on it. This book, which is effectively the catalogue of a show at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in 2013 looks as if it might go some way towards answering that question, or at least offering a further perspective on it.
I had not come across this show or book before but within the last week or so my wife listened to an on-line talk given by the author and tipped me off. Nor have I yet had time to delve into it beyond a quick first glance to see who is in it. The answer to that question is just about everyone who was a significant figure in photography, particularly during the first half of the last century. Too many to mention in full, but Robert Frank and William Klein, key figures in my essay, are there in some numbers.
After the work that I did, I am firmly of the view that inevitably one’s relationship to a particular place will have an effect on how one sees and portrays it. Where that relationship is as an “outsider” then the possibilities arise of disclosing new insights, as Frank and Klein did.
At the moment I do not really have to time to indulge in a further detailed investigation of this subject as I am presently more preoccupied with this particular course: getting Assignment 5 finished (it is very nearly there); finalising Assignment 6; and then getting ready for Assessment (which looks as if it is going to be quite a big job since the processes changed). I will though nevertheless be thinking more about this issue once I have the time, not least because it occurs to me that this might be something that will be touched on in my next module in so far as I am thinking of doing Self and Other.
Perez, N.N, (2013). Displaced visions. Jerusalem: The Israel Museum
Mark Robinson's OCA Landscape, Place & Environment Blog 