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an Imaginary Place

This series started as an exploration of the nature of the landscape photograph, an image that exists both as a depiction of the land and its features, and as a construct of our own relationship with that environment. In the panoramic landscape pho- tography tradition, the single vantage point from which the eye of the camera cap- tures the world is inspired by aesthetic conventions about what constitutes the ideal moment to capture the land, looking for the ideal combination of light, weather, and land features that will convey a mood or evoke a feeling. At the same time, that place where we stop the camera to observe and to depict is, inevitably, located at the intersection of our historical, aesthetic, and idealized relationship to the natural environment.

The descriptive text of stock landscape photographs is my blueprint for creating an image meant to be experienced from the single vantage point where the illusion comes together. A second image of the same scene, from a different point of view, breaks the illusion and reveals the tools, labor, and elaborate combination of ele- ments needed to evoke the natural environment we see in the photograph.