Reflecting on the picturesque

17th September 2015

Exercise 3:1

Write a short reflective account of your own views on the picturesque (around 300 words). Consider how the concept of the picturesque has influenced your own ideas about landscape art, and in particular your ideas about what constitutes an effective or successful landscape photograph.

The Tate defines "Picturesque" as being an "ideal type of landscape that has an artistic appeal in that it is beautiful but also with some elements of wildness." (http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/picturesque accessed 17/9/15) Landscape views could range from the sublime to the peaceful through to pretty. To be picturesque, the image had to contain some elements of wildness or irregularity. 

On the other hand, The Oxford Dictionary defines picturesque (adjective) as being of a place, building, scene, etc.) pretty, in a way that looks old-fashioned or quaint. This could be a cottage, place or village. I prefer the definition from the Tate as it gives a more detailed explanation.

My thoughts on the picturesque were influenced Gilpin; open country (wildness), maybe a building, some animals, no people, trees, interesting sky although I tend to shy away from taking picturesque landscape images myself, preferring a more documentary style of image.

I had seen awe inspiring images at MoVE (Southwell, Jo Cornish, David Anthony Hall, Pete Bridgewood) and thought I would be able to recreate elements within a scene – although my images were a poor comparison. Whilst studying the sublime I came across several images which had an “edge” to them, whether this be the highly saturated or black and white colour, emotion, lighting or the subject matter – fence falling down, wilderness, lonely tree.

I consider a successful/ effective landscape photograph to convey the emotion of the landscape which could be urban or rural.  It will inform me about the place, have a well thought out composition, maybe use different lighting from the mid-day tourist, evoke atmosphere, and may have an element of escapism or fantasy within the image and probably be picturesque in some way. Artists may sell several of these images, so this would be successful for them in the form of commercialism. A war torn (political) landscape image by comparison (recent images of migrants and refugees come to mind BBC News Sept 2015 ) which are successful may earn the photographer a World Press Photo Award, but the image reaches hundreds of people through social media, worldwide newspapers and television so I think success can be judged with different criteria. I would not consider these images to be picturesque.

References
http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/picturesquehttp://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/learner/picturesque
Bibliographyhttp://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/picturesquehttp://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/learner/picturesquehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34137358Victoria and Albert Museum (2016) The Romantic tradition in British painting 1800-1950. Available from: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-romantic-tradition-in-british-painting-1800-1950/[last accessed 20/09/2016].