I. Introduction
Once upon a time, in a world that was changing so rapidly that people could hardly understand the size and the consequences of these dramatic changes, there was a man who liked to watch the change of the seasons. He also enjoyed watching documentaries on TV about how other people lived in other continents and he was very curious about plant and animal species.
He had not traveled anywhere else, except within his country, (like most people a century ago). He was not jealous of other people that traveled all over the world. He had the feeling that such journeys had lost the tension, the romanticism, and the sense of the unexpected that they used to have.
He liked to think of journeys as acts of salvation, knowledge and loneliness. Journeys that were moved by the dark areas of the soul and not from shopping, any kind of shopping; for memories and experiences or souvenirs.
He had the sense that Westerners had turned into an elegant horde that slipped with ethereal melancholy around the continents, flat-liners of emotions that pretended “I’ ve seen it all.”
People sometimes feel disappointment when finally they arrive in their destination. Over the years they might have imagined all these exotic destinations, but when they finally go there they realize that what they see is less spectacular than what they had imagined.
He aimed to give this sense of disappointment through his photographic landscapes because he knew from the beginning that the modest landscapes of his hometown were closer to the reality of landscapes all over the world rather than the fantastic landscapes presented in tourist guides: that it is the mood that counts, more than the actual destination. He always kept in mind what Lucius Burckhard said once “…landscape is not an object that exists, but is constructed by our culture and our minds.” (Burckhardt, 1987, p.99). People often confuse environment and landscape; environment is something tangible were we can move within, but landscape is only a visual and intellectual construct.
These thoughts prompted him to imagine the whole world in the light of what he found in books and the media, which were the boundaries of his own world.
II. The project
He had studied photography and after a few years working as a lecturer decided to have a break and to be student again in another country quite different from his own.
As a student he had to create a project, which had the ambitious title “Maps of the Seasons”. In this project he aimed to communicate his impressions of the imperceptible changes in the seasons; about time and space.
In order to explore such factors of temporal comprehension he tried to formulate a hypothesis. The hypothesis was that there must be some areas of the world that meet the weather conditions to exemplify a particular season.
One of the things that fascinated him was the idea that by using photography as evidence, he could pretend that he had traveled all over the world to bring back pictures from areas that exemplified the seasons. But in fact, all these pictures were to come from a small area, in which he had lived most of his life, near his hometown in northern Greece.
In his attempt to faithfully simulate seasonal characteristics, first of all in order to convince himself, he began to seek scientific evidence. He noticed that whenever you want to make something to look real – even if it is an outrageous lie- it is easier if you can evoke a scientific aura. Scientific data, names, locations can create an impression of truth as science is always acclaimed as a factually based authority.
His intention in the creation of this fictional documentation was not to mislead the viewers, but to make them acknowledge how scientific rhetoric functions and to question the persuasive power of photography. He also sought to demonstrate the tension between the global scale and local conditions, and to explore the intellectual abstraction of cartography and the concrete experience of a place.
He realized that for this project he had to research three areas. Meteorology, Cartography and Photography.
Meteorology
First, he had to accumulate meteorological data about the climatic conditions of the Earth. The climatic information would allow him to identify those that were representative of areas for every season. It was important to him that the data should be perceived as real so that the shell of truth would appear solid. This would also be used as source material in the creation of maps. During his research, he realized that although the concept of season is scientifically relevant, there are many parameters, which constitute aspects of climate, which can make the identification of the exact location of a season difficult even for specialized scientists. Furthermore, there are local conditions in every area that must be considered. These conditions create the microclimate of the area.
He has defined the seasons according to the climate of each region. The climate of a region is the aggregate of the atmospheric conditions that characterize it in the course of an average year and include temperature, pressure, wind, humidity and precipitation. The term climate refers not simply to the average conditions but to the overall factors, the extremes as well as the means.
The classification of climates is a complex problem, and no single existing system is entirely adequate for the purpose. Any single factor or a combination of factors may be used as the basis of a classification system. The main determining factor in this project is temperature.
Cartography
An impressive satellite photograph of the earth produced by World Sat was the starting point for his cartographic research. He decided to use this satellite photograph as a base for the maps.
A major part of this section of the project was to consist of four global maps, which isolated the territories of the earth exposed to the particular seasons.
In consideration of the question “do we look at a map or read it ” (Georges, 1998:p 45) he thought that it could be answered by recognizing that as we simply “look” at the map we take in information through the iconic signs but we have to check the legend of the map to “read”, or decode the symbolic signs.
He became to view maps not only as useful objects, but also as objects of aesthetic value. He had noticed that cartographers take aesthetic issues into account in their designs.
As Georges argues: “The modern cartographer is almost a philosopher: both are concerned with the representation and interpretation of reality, its metaphors, and its abstractions” (Georges, 1998: p 75).
Actually, these similarities made him realize the complexity of the structure of a map. There are many things to take into account in order to create a map. You have to follow reality as closely as possible, try to avoid any ambiguities and to be abstract and precise.
He was well aware of the connections between maps and politics. The spirit of 16th century colonists is still alive and is exemplified in the convention for orienting images with the north at the top that persists in satellite imagery.
“In the increasingly familiar satellite images provided by remote sensing of the earth. There is a dazzling perceptual autonomy to these images that makes them favorites as postcards and posters. From Nadar’s first trip in a balloon to LANDSAT, aerial perspectives have remade visual culture” (Cubitt, 1998: p 45).
Reflecting in this perspective he came to recognize that as cartography starts using satellite photographs of the earth in the creation of maps, people will become more familiar with satellite images, and that this would create a vast new area for research in this new application of photography as well as a new development in cartography not only scientifically but also aesthetically.
For as Crandall had noted with regards to similar area of perceptual readjustment “People used to think of the development of photography as occurring along a horizontal axis: the camera positioned at the top of a tripod, lens perpendicular to the ground, gazing out over the expanse of the earth in order to capture a setting from an anthropocentric position for an absent, idealized viewer.
But photography also developed concurrently along another axis, with the recording apparatus transported vertically up into the air, its lens turned downward.” (Crandall, 1999 :p 3).
Yet the unfamiliarity of vertical and aerial images can be explained because, in the main, these images are used for military purposes and therefore not generally available to a wider public and in part because they are still less common than the horizontal images. There is however a new area in visual aesthetics that owes a lot to the military vision.
Something similar might be said about how people perceive satellite images. Perhaps in the near future people will be more familiar with satellite imagery and its characteristics. It may only then be a matter of time before satellite imagery surpasses cartography. Its accuracy makes them unrivalled.
All these thoughts contributed to the reasons that made him decide to utilize the map as an important element of his project.
Yet, how can a map depict such an abstract concept as a season?
He noted that the map is not only recognized as a tool but has been accepted as a model for scientific representation by 20th century philosophers. As Harley was to note “Map could be a paradigm for all “logical” thought.” (Harley, 1993 :p 107). Every theory can be depicted by the use of map. Exploring the structure behind the creation of a map we realize how logic can be use in order to transfer a great deal of information in just a single two-dimensional piece of paper.
Using a satellite image of the Earth as a base for his own maps of the seasons, he made tests to check his aesthetic options. A satellite image of the Earth it is quite ostentatious so he realized that he had to be very careful in the manipulation of that image. He chooses on purpose to decrease the vivid colors of the original satellite image in order to achieve a balance between the colors of the photographs and the map.
At first, he experimented with the idea of representing the territories of the Earth that didn’t conform to the characteristic of a particular season as further expanses of the sea. However, he rejected this idea because the map became very abstract and appeared un-scientific. He realized that in order to successfully meet his criteria it should look both scientifically correct and be easily understandable. After this, he tried a semi-transparent white layer over the areas that wouldn’t be exposed to the season. But he also rejected this option because it was too reminiscent of meteorological maps. He also tried to attempt to blur the irrelevant areas but the result was almost invisible. Finally, he chooses to delete the color for the areas that wouldn’t be exposed to the particular season and he was pleased with the result because it gave the appearance of being both scientifically correct and aesthetically acceptable.
Photography
In the photographic part of the project he was dealing with a further range of issues. Firstly, he challenged his own photographic skills in seeking to use the medium as evidence that might convince the viewers as to the authenticity of the photographs. Secondly, he wanted to visualize a concept –the season- through landscape images.
Because of the nature of the project, the shooting of the photographs took him a whole year to complete. Each season he returned to the same area in his hometown to take pictures. His reasons for doing so were partly because it was an area that he knew more than any other place- so he wouldn’t spend time in admiring new landscapes- and in addition because it offered diversity. The types of landscape and climate in his hometown were quite ambiguous in terms of Mediterranean landscape and weather.
It also provided him with a chance to recapture his childhood because he used to fool around these places, but also the landscape provided a familiar reference point that represented the crucial formulation of his interest in the natural world.
He sought to discretely use the iconographic conventions dealing with the concept of season according to the tradition of Western culture. In Western culture, each season carries a huge iconography closely related to human activities mainly in agriculture. The blossom of trees and flowers is definitely connected with spring, the fruition of trees with summer, harvest and plough with autumn, and the lethargy of the Earth with winter. It was his aim, therefore, that agriculture activities would be discretely represented in some of the landscape images.
There are a number of studies dealing with the complexity of landscape: Kenneth Clark (1949) expresses an innocent idealism about landscape, while Ernst Gombrich (1966) approaches landscape aesthetics primarily on the basis of landscape painting. Critics like John Barrell (1980) explore the moral, and political darkness that covers landscape, and Ann Bermingham (1986) analyses the hidden ideologies behind landscape. Finally W.J.T. Mitchell (1994) approaches landscape in order to ask not only what landscape “is” or “means” but also what it does and how it works as a cultural practice. He was aware that every time he was photographing landscapes he was dealing with hidden ideologies behind landscape that’s why he had to be very careful about the final choice of his landscape-photographs.
Historically the concept of landscape arrived in photography loaded with visual and intellectual perceptions borrowed from the history of painting, but also from poetry, and travel literature. However, landscape in photography developed its own language and created its own particularities. Photographic techniques have enabled new forms of perception and documentation, such as infrared, macro-photography and montage, which have expanded our visual field and influenced our approaches to landscape. Photographic landscape practices have led to a range of experimentations, e.g. conceptual artworks using text and image, and traditional forms of narration like myths and stories have been combined with landscape imagery to give innovative results.
The element of narration maintains a vital role in visual arts, and in the case of landscape photography may appear in different forms:
Embodied in the image by the form of visual narration, like projects of Chris Wainwright, Anna Fox, Jorma Puranen, Richard Misrach, and Jeff Wall.
Inside or beside the image in the form of text as in the works of Elizabeth Williams, Peter Goin, John Kippin, and Ed Ruscha.
A series of images creating a photo-story or photo sequence as in projects by Barbara and Michael Leisgen, Duane Michals, and Roger Cutforth.
One of the most prevalent methods to deal with the landscape in photography is to use a large format camera and a very slow film in order to achieve majestic and evocative landscapes. The results are very effective and breathtaking. American photography has many examples of this method and it is easy to see why. “Think big” is a key phrase in American culture and perhaps it is the greatness of the American nature itself that drives you to see her in that way.
Mediterranean cultures have another more modest but older tradition of seeing and creating things since antiquity. Equally far from the Eastern “Small is beautiful” and the Western “Think big”, Mediterranean cultures always keep the human scale in mind.
Originating from this latter tradition he used a standard 35mm camera with a 28mm lens because it was most similar to human vision and a colour film in order to catch the sense of the season, rather than the visual equivalent of her.
In different periods a number of photographers have tried to depict abstract concepts. For example in the late 19th century, the English naturalistic photographer James Craig Annan had tried to deal with visual equivalents of concepts like the season or time. A few decades later Alfred Stieglitz tried to create visual equivalents of concepts.
The photographs produced by this Greek man are not static, just like the season isn’t. They use the conventions of mechanical and optical representation to catch glimpses of the season. He therefore shot the landscapes from a moving vehicle, a bus, in order to be closer to the idea of the restless season. If the season were tangible he would definitely hang a camera upon her to take the pictures he wanted. He wondered if it might be considered vain to try to depict with a two dimensional and motionless medium something so big and total like the season.
He liked the tension between the global scale of the maps, the theoretical part of the project, and the local conditions of the photographs, the practical part of it. The tension was created by the bipolar of global and local. The fact that he was trying to show landscapes from around the globe by photographing his hometown area was a challenge on its own.
III. Presentation
He was amused by the idea of presenting the project in scientific institutions. He had the sense that the scope of the project would be best fulfilled in places like these because there you can challenge the authority of the institution. We have a disposition to believe that institutions will provide a specific context and history that can lend a specific aura to the objects on display. We need to believe and to feel ourselves safe inside these institutions, because somehow our knowledge is based in the respect we feel for them.
The final presentation of the project was four maps, which on purpose had the appearance of artless scientific elements. He was fascinating about the relations between science and visual arts and the new visual worlds that science can reveal. He was sure that more fascinating things happen in Science than in Art.
Critics and theorists deepen our understanding of the relationship between narration and image. Christian Metz (1974) gives enlightened distinctions between description, image, and narrative. In addition, Roland Barthes (1977) covers very extensively the range of relations between myth, narration and photographic image, while Victor Burgin (1986) examines closely the relations of language and image.
During the research he realized the necessity of narration in order to make his attempt successful. He therefore decided to compose brief texts to accompany each photographic image giving information about the specific area. He had noticed that the last years it was a great pleasure to create stories almost about everything. The texts included the name, the co-ordinations of the locations and meteorological data, the real part of the project, and stories about these places, the fictional part of the project. In this way the fictional documentation would look more real and the whole project would appeared to be more solid. The creation of a myth was behind his project. His efforts were to create the outer appearance of scientific documentation but with the inner life of a myth.
Why myth is so important to mankind?
Why is it that most things under the cover of a myth became more attractive?
Is it because myth is transcultural, transhistorical like life itself? - To paraphrase Barthes’ comment about narration.
Is it the same reason that makes him write this essay in this form rather than as plain documentation?
Manolis Skoufias 2000
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