The subject for this week’s U3AC Photo Forum was landscape. An outsider viewing the submitted work might have through rather that it was about travel, with pictures from Cambodia to Spain and Egypt to Croatia. Geography aside, the suggestion that the work should be made over the two weeks since the last meeting was a pious hope at best. Still, there was a good range of pictures that stimulated some lively discussion and plenty of laughter, see https://www.zimbushboy.online/_files/ugd/
The images spanned a wider range of subjects, approaches and competences and in doing so provided a good opportunity to reflect on what we want from a photograph. At the end of the class I had two distinct groups of pictures in my mind. First, ideal landscape photographs where form, light, tone, texture and technique come together to create the idealized image that would grace a coffee table book or the wall of a corporate HR department. These were the ones that elicited nods of appreciation and complementary comments. Second, apparently ordinary pictures where the scene was rendered simply, without drama and somehow had an everyday feel about it. Often people struggled to know what to say and asked questions rather than offering views – one person mentioned the New Topographics movement. My preference was for the second group. The first laid everything out, all perfectly clear and formal leaving you with nowhere to go – in terms of cuisine, a large sweet dessert. The second left room for exploration of the wheres, whats and whys of the land and how humankind manages or exploits or abuses it – a robust main course with plenty to chew on. Moreover, some of these were conceived as groups, which reinforced the story the photographer had in mind. Pictures in the first group were presented as one-offs and the photographer became the story. I submitted three photographs (below) made at Holm, including Holm Fen, last weekend. I had been there in 1979, so set out with certain preconceptions and expectations. I ended up somewhat disappointed. But at least the sun was shining.
