thoughts on social landscape photography

[coigach]

Well essentially reading as a landscape photographer is "Yi Fu Tuan - A Sense of Place, or preferably if you can find it Topophilia". Although a geographer his writings are about how we use the space around us. All my own landscape work is about man's impact on the landscape and Tuan's books are very useful helping contextualise my photography.

Of course he writes heavily about the social landscape.

Ian

A writer I've found helpful on social landscape (although perhaps in an oblique way) is Barry Lopez. There's a wonderful essay in 'About this life - journey's on the threshold of memory' about the relationship between place, and photographs.

Cheers,
Gavin

[phyllis72]

umm with the examples given, what would be the difference between street, urban landscape, and social landscape?

[Anscojohn]

My latest photography assignment is to shoot a social landscape and present 10 photos to the teacher. I'm wondering what "social landscape" means to other photographers. Any thoughts?

****

I have no idea.

[keithwms]

Landscape photographs that reflect social conditions. The landscapes that people inhabit have some effect on their society, and their society also affects the landscape. That relationship is what it's about, I think.

[Andrew Horodysky]

Landscape photographs that reflect social conditions. The landscapes that people inhabit have some effect on their society, and their society also affects the landscape. That relationship is what it's about, I think.

In addition to some of the earlier suggestions, the above is a good place to start. This is a subject/genre that's been explored since the beginning of the medium. Check out the "New Topographics" photographers' works -- Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, among others (Steidl recently published a new book about the original exhibition. Also, you'll want to look at the "Dusseldorf School" photographers who've studied under the Bechers -- Struth, Gursky, Fuchs, et al.

[Sirius Glass]

Siriusly Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother

[r1ma]

I would think, if going with Lange, you'd pick something from her documenting the Japanese interment camps

"Residents of Japanese Ancestry awaiting the bus..." 1942

And ask yourself, what is the difference between social landscapes, the social landscape, social documentary, and social criticism.

[patois]

In the segregated community in which I live people in up at welfare/food shelf the same way that people desperately line up at Starbucks. It is interesting to see how the two groups of people interact in different spaces but end up behaving the same.

[dpurdy]

http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/
Check this guy's work.