Contemporary Landscape photography?

[MamiyaJen]

As much as I love taking inspiration from traditional landscape photography and paintings, I want to start looking more at contemporary practitioners but finding great photography online can be like looking for a needle in a haystack at times, more so when it comes to landscapes as I'm not interested in the gifted amateur who goes to his nearest beach or hill top and takes sweeping shots and that's generally what one tends to find.

So can anyone recommend some good, contemporary artists?

 

[Ian Grant]

In the UK, Paul Hill, the late Fay Godwin and Raymond Moore, John Davies, Jem Southam, Thomas Joshua Cooper, early John Blakemore, that's just a start.

Ian

 

[MamiyaJen]

Although i like most of those, Jem Southam stands out. I looked at the others and I don't know if it's because they're in black and white but they just seem a little too traditional for me. Whereas Southam's work seems a bit more up to date.

So now i'm wondering is it colour which makes a landscape more contemporary or is it still all in the way it's shot?

 

[MamiyaJen]

I should also add i'm after photographers who's work has been made mostly in the past 20 years.

 

[Alan Johnson]

UK based Charlie Waite , Joe Cornish have websites, are still working, run courses.
Charlie Waite has done one book of black and white.Colin Westgate runs courses.

 

[Ian Grant]

There's also Paul Graham in colour and Fay Godwin shot colour in the last few years of her life - less than 10-15 years ago. Simon Norfolk shoots colour

B&W or Colour it's the way it's shot particularly with regard to what the photographer is trying to express and explore, UK and European contemporary photography often has political undertones, far more so than US photographers.

I could give you a much longer list but my books are mainly packed away in storage. Look at some of the German photographers who studied undere the Bechers.

Ian.

 

[jeffreyg]

Why look at others? If you are looking to break from sweeping vistas and for that matter B&W why not go out with color and a long lens or perhaps macro and develop your own vision. It is not the easiest thing to do when you appreciate what others have done and that is in the back of your mind. A couple of names that come to mind with color are Eliot Porter and Ernst Haas (both not too contemporary) as well as Joel Meyerowitz. They have very large bodies of work that include a variety of treatments of the landscape.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

 

[rpsawin]

A few to start...

Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed
http://www.donkirby.com/
http://www.michaelkenna.net/

This should get you going.

Best regards,

Bob

 

[wonderlustking]

Ed Burtynsky is amazing: Dead Link Removed

also www.icehuts.ca (Richard Johnson)

 

[CGW]

Gregory Crewdson is worth a look--staged, cinematic but still a landscape photographer.

http://www.artnet.com/awc/gregory-crewdson.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RywAfP4KFcY

 

[MamiyaJen]

Why look at others? If you are looking to break from sweeping vistas and for that matter B&W why not go out with color and a long lens or perhaps macro and develop your own vision. It is not the easiest thing to do when you appreciate what others have done and that is in the back of your mind. A couple of names that come to mind with color are Eliot Porter and Ernst Haas (both not too contemporary) as well as Joel Meyerowitz. They have very large bodies of work that include a variety of treatments of the landscape.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

That's something I always think about. My tutors are always telling me to look at others' work and do lots of research and we actually get marked down if we don't do enough but most of the time I think if i look too much at others' work I have a terrible tendency to be too influenced by them, if that makes sense.

 

[Monito]

Why look at others?

"Bad artists copy; great artists steal." -- Pablo Picasso

Any artist who thinks they know it all and don't need to look at other work has reached a conclusion and stopped thinking and stopped growing.

 

[Monito]

most of the time I think if i look too much at others' work I have a terrible tendency to be too influenced by them, if that makes sense.

Don't fret. Look at so many other photographers' work that no one photographer's influence dominates. Anyway, so what if one or ten influence you? All great artists have been influenced and build on the shoulders of giants.

If you want to get beyond what a favourite artist does you have to go through it. You can't hop over. You will either recreate all their steps without seeing their work or you will see their work and go through it faster.

 

[dasBlute]

Some California folks I'm familiar with:
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed
the Dead Link Removed

 

[Tim Boehm]

http://www.charlescramer.com
http://www.jefffrancis.com

 

[ic-racer]

Everyone in this book. This is my 'bible' of contemporary landscape

Between Home and Heaven: Contemporary American Landscape Photography [Paperback]
Merry Foresta (Author), Stephen Jay Gould (Author), Karal Ann Marling (Author)

 

[Travis Nunn]

What about
Bill Schwab http://www.billschwab.com/ or Brian Kosoff ?
Tim Rudman is widely known for his toning and lith expertise, but he is as fine a photographer as you'll ever see (http://www.timrudman.com/)

 

[MamiyaJen]

Thanks everyone there's some great photographers come up here, some known most unknown. Great

 

[Frank Bunnik]

Michael Kenna, Christopher Burkett, Edward Burtynsky, Clyde Butcher and myself of course to name a few.

www.frankbunnik.zenfolio.com

 

[Sparky]

"Bad artists copy; great artists steal." -- Pablo Picasso

Any artist who thinks they know it all and don't need to look at other work has reached a conclusion and stopped thinking and stopped growing.

TOTALLY AGREE. After being involved with photography and education for close to 30 years now, the best advice I have to give is this. If you're interested in someone's work, COPY IT. Try to make some of the same photographs. Chances are - you'll find you'll be leaving your own fingerprint on the work - in doing this, you are exploring aspects of what you find interesting about it. Once you start actually THINKING about it and exploring the options - you'll find you'll end up at a place that's very different from where you started - and probably a lot more satisfying to your own interests. But you have to put in some brain time to get there. You can't get there without that investment - or commitment.

There are a lot of good books out there - compendia on contemporary photography. Go to the library. Go to book stores. Spend some time with your head in the pages. Don't limit yourself to artificial categories like 'landscape' either - it may well be that what you find interesting about that category can be had in another form... second guess yourself. That's what it's all about. Good luck!

 

[batwister]

David Ward - http://www.into-the-light.com/

An absolute visionary in my mind and leagues ahead of nearly every other landscape photographer working (again, in my opinion).
If I meet any naysayers of photography as an art form, David Ward's work is often the first port of call.
His photographs might not strike you straight away, but take a little time to absorb the images in his gallery.
Simple, beautiful work. You'll learn a lot from his blog too, which often attracts the input of academics and mathematicians!
Enlightening reading on our art form and it has really paved the way for my thinking and practice.
I dare say the best landscape photography teacher since Minor White.


Paul Wakefield - http://www.paulwakefield.co.uk/

Just stunning work. Nothing more to be said.


Andrew Nadolski - http://www.nadolski.com

He hasn't produced any other notable work since 2005, but his 'End of the Land' series is a high benchmark in contemporary landscape photography.
I have the book and can tell you it's well worth purchasing - that is, if you're interested in landscape photography as an expressive art form.



You might also benefit from subscribing to LandscapeGB - http://www.landscapegb.com. Perhaps concentrated a little too much on the technical, but I've made a few discoveries from the mag and I consider myself fairly well informed in regards to the landscape 'scene'.

As someone else mentioned; John Blakemore. He is the father of fine art landscape photography in Britain (although working in relative obscurity) and his retrospective has recently been published.
A good starting point and he is still working, to the best of my knowledge.

Apposite to what others have said, the 'imitate, assimilate, innovate' idea is something I live by.
Currently working on innovation!

 

[Jeff Kubach]

I agree with Travis about Tim Rudman.

Jeff

 

[olleorama]

Tim Parkin. Great blog too, although not updated for a while. Isn't he a member here? His site is www.timparkin.co.uk

 

[batwister]

Tim Parkin is the editor and creator of LandscapeGB magazine too, alongside Joe Cornish. Tim isn't recognised for his photography, more his sharing of knowledge through his blog and now LandscapeGB. Certainly an influential figure in the new large format 'movement' in the UK, but more of a techie than photographer.

 

[rolleiman]

Although of a former generation, the black & white work of Bill Brandt is worth a look. Not entirely just a landscape photographer, but what he did was original.

It occurs to me, that in this digital age, with everyone wanting to rush around shooting at 10 frames a second, originality and actally taking time to think about what you're doing is somewhat out of fashion.

Ironically you may have to go back a couple of generations to find the best "contemporary" photographers!