Norfolk
Once again, i am looking in to a more historical approach towards landscape photography. Peter Henry Emerson was around from 1866 to 1936. He has looked in to the idea of people living within the landscape. Showing that at the time humans had not yet damaged the environment. Looking at images from the past allows us to see the change in how we as humans treat the landscape and how much it has changed. These photos being from over 130 years ago show how much life has really changed. Emerson's influential 1889 book Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art outlined his thesis that "photography's ability to record nature truthfully was its most expressive one". He argued that the photograph should "imitate nature rather than alter it".
What i have liked about Peter Henry Emerson's work while looking at it is that despite the buildings and boats still being in the photos, the photos have a sense of feeling as though the humans are continuing to live within the natural landscape. In my own work some of the older buildings look like they are just part of the landscape however when i look at streets of houses and the newer houses it feels like we are becoming more of a disturbance towards the landscape rather than a part of it. I think that my photos go against what Emerson says due to my photos having a sense of nature being altered. This is because i am wanting to reflect the impact of people on the natural landscape.