This unique collection brings together the work of photography writer, curator, and lecturer, Liz Wells, reflecting on key themes of landscape, place, nationhood, and environmental concerns.
A newly written introductory chapter contextualizes the collection. This is followed by an ‘in conversation’ with Martha Langford, Concordia University, Montreal, that brings together two leading figures in the field to respond to Wells’ thought and the themes that emerge in her writings. The essays included in this anthology draw on work from a variety of sources including artists’ photobooks, exhibition catalogues, magazines, academic books, and journals. Seventeen previously published articles, organized thematically in relation to Curation and Residency, Phenomena, Place, and Critical Reflections, demonstrate Wells’ critical and curatorial approach to research through photographic practices, reflecting a core view of art (at its best) operating to convey the implications of what is being explored and to evoke responses that are simultaneously sensory and intellectual.
This collection will be essential reading for students and scholars of photography, visual culture, and art history, especially those examining landscape and environmental photography.
Author(s): Liz Wells
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 280
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Chapter Credits
Prologue
Acknowledgements
Part I: Critical Reflections
Chapter 1: Photography, Curation, Criticism
Reflections
Interventions
The Image that Disturbs
Sublime as Disturbance
The Seduction of Beauty
Thinking Critically
Anthology
Notes
References
Chapter 2: Speaking of this Collection: A Conversation Between Martha Langford and Liz Wells
References
Part II: On Curation and Residency
Chapter 3: Curatorial Strategy as Critical Intervention: The Genesis of Facing East
Curating as Research Process
Facing East
Considerations
Landscape Photography from Baltic Areas
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 4: Landscapes of Exploration
Notes
References
Chapter 5: On Being Out of Place
References
Part III: Phenomena
Chapter 6: Icy Prospects
Wilderness
Wilderness Journeys
Lapland – Arctic Wilderness
Refusing Appropriation
In the Land of Make-Believe
Icy Prospects
Dreaming with Open Eyes
References
Chapter 7: Light Touch
Notes
Chapter 8: No Man’s Land: Antarctica and the Contemporary Sublime
The Antarctic as No Man’s Land
Sublime
Sublime as a Concept Historically
Contemporary Art and the Sublime
Notes
References
Part IV: Place
Chapter 9: Points of Departure: Currencies of the Post-Industrial Sublime
Sublime as Concept
Currencies of the Post-Industrial Sublime
Thinking Through Art
Notes
References
Chapter 10: Questions of Distance
Notes
References
Chapter 11: Photography, Nation, Nature
Introduction
Europe and Place
Landscape Photography: Themes and Aesthetics
European Places
Notes
References
Chapter 12: A Man of the North
Notes
References
Chapter 13: Hidden Histories and Landscape Enigmas
Notes
References
Chapter 14: Histories and Imagination: Narrative and Metaphor in the Work of John Kippin
References
Chapter 15: Silent Witness
Notes
References
Part V: Critical Spaces
Chapter 16: Seeing Beyond Belief: Cultural Studies as an Approach to Analysing the Visual
Introduction
Cultural Studies
Media Studies
The Study of Visual Culture
Cultural Studies: Methodologies
Analysis
Context of Viewing
Context of Production
Looking: Form and Meaning
Conventions
Pictorial Conventions
Semiotics and Codes
Photographic Conventions
Social Conventions
Power and Photographic Conventions
Looking: Recognition and Identity
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 17: The Critical Forum
Problematising the Theory-Practice Relation
MA Independent Film and Video
Film Theory for Film Practice
A Few Final Points
Notes
Chapter 18: Then and Now: Some Notes on Photography and Theory
Framing Moments
Document
Institutions
Signification
Then and Now
Note
References
Chapter 19: Modes of Investigation: On Photography and Environment
Notes
References
About the Author
Index
