Reflections on Chapter 1

Although the introduction was written only a month ago, it has been three since I started on the Landscape course, having trialled a few exercises before taking the plunge of enrolling. I set out that I wished to use the experience of previous courses (in particular Understanding Visual Culture) and my interest in coastline walking, and that has so far been successful. UVC gave me the confidence of reading and writing about art in general and of referencing; this generic skill has been utilised in several of the exercises; I like the fact that the course contains much about Landscape photography (and the wider artistic context) as well as doing.

Ater a simple preconception exercise, the first reading and critique for exercise 1.2 was of Krauss's thesis of art in the gallery; it leads more generally to what is art (revisited in my reading of Grayson Perry's Playing to the Gallery), a well trodden path, but one that is necessary to tackle in a course such as this.

Exercise 1.3 provides a further opportunity to widen from  merely photography to consider conventions in the world of landscape art. I used the exercise as an introduction to the concepts of beauty, sublime and picturesque.

Whether photography can be viewed as art is another well discussed subject, as set out in exercise 1.4. The issue for photographers is that the product is used for so many purposes: aesthetic, fun, advertising, sport, journalism to mention a few. All of these COULD be defined as art in some circumstances, much depends on the objective of the author. There is an argument that an artistic aesthetic can be assigned only to a series of images, a photo book in common parlance.

The sublime is the subject of exercise 1.6. I have some difficulty with the concept of sublime as it is not a word with a clearly defined meaning in common parlance - if anything it is used to mean exceptional quality, almost a 'beauty plus'. I discussed Morley's essay then suggested that the concept of sublime may be viewed in the context of sci-fi, specifically the movie Ex Machina.

As one keen on post processing, I found exercise 1.8 useful to engage on HDR processing. This was more practical exercise and an opportunity to compare how to take images where there are wide variations in exposure. My technique is to use post processing largely, simply because the opportunity to use in camera functions requires equipment (a tripod) that is simply not feasible to carry but I show there are in camera functions that can be used even without a tripod.

Exercise 1.9 shows contrasts between social perspectives in place. It is important not to lose the human in landscape - the human geography on my coastal and other walks is integral to the experience. I used images of Barcelona, which is at once a popular tourist destination and a city with a large homeless population, to show the different sides.

The assignment completed the Chapter, and provided an opportunity to challenge whether the distinction between beauty and sublime is binary and even whether it has as much relevant now as 150 years ago.

The chapter has proved an interesting and challenging start to the course.Reviewing the assessment criteria:

• Does this show technical and visual skill? I think the images are well chosen and demonstrate what the exercises and assignments intend;
• I enjoy the discussion on topics such as the sublime/beautiful contrast, whether photography is art. Hopefully my arguments are presented clearly and with a personal voice;
• I do reflect on the subject, genuinely interested in the background reading.