Related Program: Opening Talk Abstract
"Why do we see the landscape there?"
Rei Masuda (Chief Curator, Chief of Photography Office, Art Division, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) Photography Office, Art Division)
November 8 (Sat) 17:00-18:10
1. What is landscape?
External "view" ≠ landscape
A person's view of the outside world cannot immediately be called a "landscape. For example, the medical term "disorientation" is a method used in emergency medicine to question a patient's normal level of consciousness by asking the patient questions such as "name, current date and time, and where am I? A patient who is conscious but does not know the name, time, or place is not considered normal. As this shows, humans live in a world of meaning. The reason why the scheme of "seeing" the outside world = "scenery" is established is that we adopt a "framework" (=in other words, a worldview or world image) to read meaning into the outside world, but the "framework" varies from culture to culture and from era to era.
The Modern View of "Landscape
Folklorist Kunio Yanagida pointed out that the view from a train window is linking of "landscape" for the Japanese. The vista of a farming village is full of names and meanings for the inhabitants, which tied to the life, climate, and history. The inhabitants are firmly bound to the world of meaning. In contrast, the view from a train window exists independently of the passengers, and is not a famous or historic place, but a "nameless landscape," so to speak, which can only be seen as a "landscape. This is the modern "scenery. To establish such a modern view of "landscape," it is necessary to "keep a distance from the subject," "separate the subject from the object," and "frame the view and cut it into pieces," which all fit well with the experience of looking at the outside world with a "photograph" (= camera). Therefore, the accumulation of various experiences with "photography" must have played a major role in the formation of the modern view of "landscape. Nevertheless, when we speak of "landscape photography," it is not enough to say that the photographer simply aimed the shutter at the outside world and clicked the shutter, at least not if he or she intends to show it to others as an act of expression or representation. So, how is a "landscape photograph" established?
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2. landscapes and photography
Classifying Landscape Photography
Historically, photographers' attempts at landscape photography may be broadly classified into the following three categories.
[1] A methodology that establishes the beauty of the landscape itself as an image and replaces it with the beauty of the photograph. Example: Ansel Adams' work on nature in the American West. He shows the direction of increasing the purity of beauty through perfect black-and-white photographs of beautiful natural landscapes that have never been seen before.
[2] A methodology that takes the landscape as an object of analysis and exploration, something as a text to read from it. Examples: works of "new topographics" such as Robert Adams and Lewis Boltz. Their use of photography reveals clues about differentiation and social backgrounds in familiar landscapes that are not particularly beautiful, and to show new knowledge and perspectives.
[3] A methodology is that the photographer uses the landscape as the receptacle for the photographer's inner thoughts and feelings. Example: Alfred Stieglitz's work called "Equivalent. The interaction between the view of the outside world and the photographer's inner world by presenting the movement of clouds, trees, etc. as metaphors for inner feelings. Thus, most good "landscape photography" combines these three elements, and the work is established by placing emphasis on one of them.
Transformation of Landscape Photography
If the concept of "scenery" as the "appearance" of the outside world is based on a shared worldview and world image, then "landscapes" must change with the changing worldview and world image over time. Similarly, "landscape photography" will also change and transform with the times. The following photographs may be a manifestation of such changes.
Recent works by Andreas Gursky = works that actively incorporate Photoshop processing.
CAD (computer aided design) designed contemporary architecture and urban spaces are, in the first place, forms and spaces generated from electronic space rather than from the human brain. If this is the case, then the image that has been replaced and processed by electronic information, rather than by an analog camera, is more compatible with the human brain.
The image processed and replaced by electronic information may be more compatible with the analog camera. Naoki Honjo's focus-controlled work = A landscape that is in focus only at the center and looks like a miniature or a diorama. It may be similar to the experience in the web space, where one can pinpoint a part of the image, rather than the conventional (modern) way of knowing, which is to grasp the whole image and position the parts. Thus, changes in our everyday world mean that our worldview and world image are also changing. The works of Gursky and Honjo can be taken as signs of such changes.
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3. Are Satoru Yoshioka's recent works "landscapes"?
Satoru Yoshioka's recent works consist of a series of photographs of high-energy physics research institutes around the world and a series of photographs of phenomena in the brain, the field of the latest brain science. The former series includes indoor photographs and photographs of various equipment and devices, and can be considered as "landscape photography" in the broadest sense. What about the latter?
As mentioned above, we assumed that "landscapes" or "landscape photographs" change as worldviews and world images change. The photographer is presenting what he sees in the form of photographs. If that is the case. We can look at these works as photographs of "landscapes" that are changing, or as the creation of a new "landscape photography". I would like to view "Sciencescape" as a work that represents, if not directly, the site of a new image of the world opened up by the frontiers of knowledge.
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Sciencescape: New Landscapes Opened by Science, Satoru Yoshioka Photo Exhibition
Dates: November 8 (Sat) - December 7 (Sun), 2014 Closed: Weekdays November 8 (Sat) and 9 (Sun), 2014
Opening hours: 11:00-16:00
Venue: Zuiun-an (62-1 Minamioji-cho, Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto)
Organizer: "Sciencescape -New Landscapes Opened by Science-" Executive Committee
Cooperation: COHJU contemporary art, KANSAI ART BEAT, Radium-Roentgenwerke
Supported by: Nishieda Foundation
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2. 風景と写真
風景写真を分類してみる
歴史的に見て、風景写真をめぐる写真家たちの試みは以下の3つに大別できるのではないか。
[1] 景観そのものの美しさをイメージとして定着させ、写真の美しさに置きかえる方法論。
例： アンセル・アダムズのアメリカ西部の自然をめぐる作品。見たこともないような美しい自然景観を、完璧な
モノクロ写真で表現し、美しさの純度を上げる方向性を示している。
[2] 風景を分析・探査の対象、何かをそこから読みとるべきテクストとしてとらえる方法論。
例： ロバート・アダムズやルイス・ボルツといった「ニュートポグラフィクス」の作品。とりたてて美しくない、
見慣れた景観に分化的背景、社会的背景などを読みとる手掛かりを浮かび上がらせるような写真の使用法で、
新たな知見や視点を提示している。
[3] 風景をひとつの器として、 そこに写真家自身の内面の思いや感情を仮託する方法論。
例： アルフレッド・スティーグリッツの「Equivalent （等価）」と呼ばれる作品。雲の動きや樹木などを、内面の感情のメタファーとして提示することで、外界の眺めと、写真家の内面の相互作用に立脚している。このように、実際にはほとんどのすぐれた「風景写真」はこの三つの要素をあわせ持っていて、そのいずれかに力点が置かれることで作品が成立していると言える。
風景写真の変容
外界の「見え」＝「風景」という図式が成立するのは、ひとつの世界観・世界像が共有されたからであるとすると、 時代とともに変化する世界観・世界像によって、「風景」も変容するはずである。同じく、「風景写真」も時代によって変化・変容するだろう。次のような写真は、そうした変化の現れではないだろうか。
アンドレアス・グルスキーの近作＝フォトショップによる加工を積極的にとりいれた作品。CAD （computer
aided design）で設計された現代建築や都市空間とは、そもそも人間の脳の中というよりも、電子空間から生成した造形であり、空間である。だとすると、アナログなカメラではなく、一度電子情報に置きかえられ、加工された
イメージの方が、より親和的なのではないか。本城直季のフォーカスコントロールによる作品＝中心にだけフォーカスがあり、ミニチュアかジオラマのように見える風景。全体像を把握し、部分を位置づけていくという従来の（近代的）知の在り方ではなく、ピンポイントで部分にたどりつくweb空間での体験と相似しているのではないか。
このように、私たちにとっての日常世界の変化とは、世界観・世界像も変化するということである。グルスキーや
本城の作品は、そうした変化の徴候としてとらえることができる。 |
