Exercise 2.3: Typologies

Typology; The study or systematic classification or types that have characteristics or traits in common (1)

I enjoyed this exercise. The article by Sean O'Hagan, 'New Topographics', was interesting and understandable to read. O'Hagan explains that after William Jenkins "rewrote the rules of landscape photography (2), it sparked an interest shared by other photographers to shun the typical 'natural landscape' and create images of urban scenes in America at that time.

I looked through the work of Robert Adams (1937)  (3) and was particularly interested in the 'Summer Nights' collection, The images were made to appear quiet but they ooze the presence of people even when there are no inclusions of people. I liked that they were all taken at twilightas opposed to dark because I feel that it adds to the feel of the images having a people presence. Twilight indirectly presumes that people are still awake even though they cant be sen as opposed to at night where the presence feeling could be removed as you would assume that people would be sleeping and not about to 'pop' into the image. I found it a very interesting set of images as it made me think of what Lewis Baltz said in the video suggested (4).

" A work of art is something interesting to think about more than something that is interesting to look at" (Baltz, 2012) (4)

I also looked into the work of Stephen Shore (1947) (5) and found his images are very viewer friendly. I felt that I could've just jumped into the scene as the images were so familiar and scenes that people ca really relate to.  Google images search shows a very 70's feel to the scenes and I think that the era is a lot more evident through his use of colour.




References:
(1) http://www.thefreedictionary.com/typologies

(2) http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/08/new-topographics-photographs-american-landscapes

(3) http://media.artgallery.yale.edu/adams/landing.php

(4) http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tateshots-lewis-baltz

(5) http://stephenshore.net/photography.php