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Trends in American Photography AndFacets of the American Ideology of Space
3
Through the lens of an iPhone 4
Photography and the American LandscapeFinal Project Keenan WeatherfordProf. Andrea Hammer12-10-2010
 
Photography dramatically changed the popular conception of which images are considered “art” -- a vi-sual representation produced to instill some feeling in the viewer -- and which can be considered “science,” or 
somehow afliated with some universal reality shared by all. A photograph is the result of scientic and chemical processes — the effects of these processes can be quantied and predicted and, as such, interpreted as a repre
-
sentation of reality. At the very beginning of the process that results in a photograph, however, an individual — a
 person with his or her own unique personality and set of assumptions — has to set those chemical reactions in
motion. Someone has to decide how to prepare the silver plate or when to press the shutter button, and that indi
-
vidual’s assumptions are transferred into the photograph that results.At any point wherein the photographer makes a decision related to the photograph’s outcome, the photog
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rapher’s personality and beliefs are injected into the photograph. An obvious example of such a point is framingand composing the photograph — the photographer chooses what to include and exclude, and how to position theelements he or she is including. Those decisions are grounded in “reality” — after all, the photographer cannot photograph something that does not actually exist — but they reect only a very particular and carefully plannedview of reality. Framing and composition may be one of the more obvious ways a photographer can selectivelyrepresent reality to his or her viewers. But every decision the photographer makes is a selective representation of reality. As Snyder and Allen put it: “A photographer -- even a Sunday snapshooter -- makes a number of charac
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terizations by his choice of equipment and how he uses it” (1975, p. 150). Choosing from the various chemicaland mechanical techniques of photography, selecting a size and frame for the nal product, and even setting the
 price or method of distribution of the photograph — all these decisions are made by the photographer and are a
 product of the cultural assumptions embedded in the photographer’s psyche.Although the photographer does not take the photograph with “cultural assumptions” in mind, per se, theyare inevitably present in the nal product. The photographer’s intentions for the photograph says something aboutcontemporary society and its zeitgeist, or spirit of the times.
One way to “increase” the viewer’s insight into the “objective reality” of a picture -- a concept that is dif-
cult to describe, so I think of it as the rough equivalent of if the viewer was actually present at the moment of capture of the photograph -- is to disclose every decision made throughout its capture, according to Snyder andAllen (1975, p. 162): “The picture is valuable as an index of truth only to the extent that the process by which itwas made is stated explicitly, and the pictures can be interpreted accurately only by people who have learned howto interpret them.”So for the sake of allowing additional insight into the objective reality of these images, I’ll briey explainhow I captured and selected them. All three were taken on my cell phone using a camera application called “Hip
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stamatic,” which produces images meant to look like they were taken by a vintage plastic camera. Each of thethree photographs I selected reects a different approach to photography, and each also reects one of the threefacets of Marx’s American Ideology of Space. “
Overlook 
” is a territorial landscape photograph, modeled off of 
Carleton Watkins’ images of the Yosemite Valley, and reects Marx’s notion of the pastoral American ideology of space. “
Stillness
” is a tonalist pictorial photograph, and reects the nativist ideology of space. “
Wired at Break-
 
When I rst walkedup to the point at which I
would eventually capture“
Overlook 
,” I was withmy father, who remarked
on “what a great view”
was laid out in front of us.It was, indeed, a “view,” in
every consumerist and ter-
ritorial sense of the word.The overlook was not obvi
-ous, but it was not well-hidden ei-ther, and it was clearly a destination
designed for visitors to take in theview. An obvious, well-worn dirt path led off the sidewalk to a cliff 
-- lined by a waist-height stone wallto ensure that no tourists would fall
-- that offered a panoramic vista:directly below was the Ithaca Fallsin Fall Creek Gorge, and CayugaLake and the valley of Ithaca waslaid out as far as the eye could see.Much like how Watkins’ various“Views” of the Yosemite Valley
spawned photographic points of in-terest for tourists to consume, some-one at some point decided that this
overlook was a good spot for visi
-
tors to enjoy the view. Malcolm An
-
drews notes that “In judging what
is a ‘good view’ we are preferringone aspect of the countryside to an-
other. We are selecting and editing,
suppressing or subordinating somevisual information in favour of pro-
moting other features.” (1999, p. 3).Whoever designed this particular overlook managed to include the
 presence of the waterfall along with
the panoramic view of Ithaca, while
omitting the suspension bridge just
up Fall Creek.The waterfall provided an ob
-
vious parallel to the “Sacred Place”nature of Niagara Falls. If someonewere to “do the Ithaca landscape”as John Sears describes tourists“doing the Niagara Falls” (1998, p. 22), this overlook would likely
 be a spot on the tour, offering visi-
tors a pre-packaged opportunity to
obtain photographic evidence that
they were, indeed, in one of Ithaca’sfamous gorges. Every politically- bounded region is dened at least partially by its scenery, but Itha
-
ca’s identity is especially linked to
its unique geographical traits, asshown by the ubiquitous
“Ithaca is Gorges” t-shirtsand bumper stickers. It
would be interesting tolearn if that identity (and
those t-shirts) came about
 before or after this partic-ular “
Overlook 
” was dis-covered and molded into a
 photo opportunity.Either way, it is not surpris
-ing that this spot is a well-traveled
overlook point. The view is breath
-
taking in both its scope and beauty.This photograph is reminiscent of the typical Claudian picturesque pastoral landscape: the colors of the
changing leaves blend the outline of 
the rocky hills into a smooth stroke
of greens, reds, and oranges; and theriver runs down the middle of the photograph before curving out of 
view. The only evidence of humaninuence are the white buildings
that broach the top of the trees in the
middle ground of the photograph.But these buildings do not seem
 particularly out of place, providingthe impression of a harmonious re-lationship between man and nature-- the “middle landscape” idealized
in Leo Marx’s “pastoral” strain of the American ideology of space.
Overlook 
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