Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language
Article Title
Portraits of Vulnerable Ghosts: Contemporary Landscape Photography in Context
Abstract
In this paper creative immortality and experiential transcendence as forms of symbolic immortality are placed within a historical and contemporary landscape context. The thesis sets forward the argument that despite the best intentions for schematics of remembrance, these forms remain elusive and inherently mutable. Investigations into the sense of loss of self-inherent in the landscape are defined as a sort of experiential transcendence and approaches the sublime from a position of perceived narrative and yearning for connection with the greater movements of the earth and sky. An argument is made for the return to a level of reverence and understanding of our place within the role of the landscape system and to increase our understanding and awareness of its melancholic beauty.