Art & Art History ETDs

Publication Date

9-27-1978

Abstract

The landscape is introduced as a useful motif in order to examine the sensibilities of a group of photographers toward the same subject in detail and in addition discuss some aspects of the mediation imposed by the camera lens on any subject. Four photographers are examined with a detailed analysis of four to six images from each: Darius Kinsey (1871-1940), Ansel Adams (1902-    ), Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966), and Harry Callahan (1912-    ). Chapter I, "Darius Kinsey's Logging Views." The background of the American frontiersman's attitude toward the wilderness is introduced as a context for Kinsey's work done at logging operations in northwestern Washington in the early twentieth century. The image of the technological "counterforce" impinging upon the landscape used so frequently in American literature is presented as a model for examining Kinsey’s photographs. It is argued that Kinsey’s simple and direct views remain compelling today because of the impressive quality of objective detachment Kinsey maintained and also because we are informed by this literary tradition. Chapter II, "Ansel Adams’ Landscapes." Adams is placed within the context of the urban, genteel population in America who were among the first to express an appreciation of the wilderness for its own sake. It is noted that the conservation cause espoused by the Sierra Club was crucial to Adams' early development and had a profound influence on his later landscape work. Adams' landscapes are discussed as ideological correlates to the Sierra Club's transcendentalist concept of nature as a church for man. It is concluded that forces of contradiction do not exist in Adams' landscapes hence they are effective advertisements for the preservation of the wilderness but fail to generate the complex issues raised in Kinsey's work. Chapter III, "Alvin Langdon Coburn's Landscapes." The concept that the frame edge of the camera can refer to the photograph itself and act as a "counterforce" to the landscape is introduced. It is argued that issues analogous to those raised in Kinsey's views are generated in this way in Coburn’s landscapes. It is argued that Coburn's landscapes are a translation of his teacher Arthur Dow's oriental design concepts into photography. It is concluded that these landscapes exhibit a perfectly balanced tension between Coburn's romantic, evocative tendency and a simple, planar formal strategy. Chapter IV. "Harry Callahan's Landscapes." Callahan’s development is discussed in detail with primary emphasis on his recent landscapes from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It is maintained that while Callahan shares a predisposition for asserting the photograph as an aesthetic object with Coburn, he carries his strategies in a much more reductive direction. It is argued that because of this tendency the landscape appears at first examination to be little more than raw material for Callahan's sophisticated formal strategy. It is shown, however, that a reticent but rich expressive quality does exist in the work. It is concluded, moreover, that Callahan's landscapes are among his most satisfying pictures because the landscape itself, conversely to Coburn, functions as a "counterforce" to his consuming formal intelligence. Epilogue. It is concluded that the acknowledgement of the presence of technology in the landscape photograph is a potent avenue for raising rich and complex issues that are pertinent to the American experience. It is further stated that this acknowledgement can successfully take the form of a self-reference to the photograph, and that this is a rich avenue for future landscape photography.

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Arts

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

UNM Department of Art and Art History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Thomas Francis Barrow

Second Committee Member

Van Deren Coke

Third Committee Member

Betty Hahn

Fourth Committee Member

Wayne Roderic Lazorik

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