Auspicious Dragon and the Non-Luminous Landscape

For some time now, I've been struggling to sort out some thoughts about landscape photography and the way it seeks to capture the landscape at extraordinary moments instead of quotidian ones.

Today I visited photostream, one of the blogs on Auspicious Dragon, and discovered that I'm not alone in trying to sort out those thoughts and issues.

I was especially struck by the words

I'm not arguing that landscape photographs should not be pretty. I'm not even arguing that moving the odd coke can is a bad thing. But I am arguing that photography has a role in showing that the landscape begins right at our feet. That we don't need specialist clothing, ropes and a guide to feel the grass. That there is a landscape of great beauty out there that amateurs can enjoy. I'm also arguing that we need to accept the roads, and the wires. They are really there and pretending that they are not is a part of what makes landscape photographs disconnected from experience.

Go read http://www.auspiciousdragon.net/photostream/2006/07/mass-amateurisation.html, http://www.auspiciousdragon.net/photostream/2006/07/mass-amateurisation.html, and http://www.auspiciousdragon.net/photography/articles/photoarticle028.html.