Carlton Ward and the Power of Images

Although he’s a lot more recent than many of the other artists we’ve talked about in class, Carlton Ward has many similar objectives to traditional nature photographers such as Ansel Adams.

Clay Ranch, Putnam County

Ward started out photographing rain forests and deserts in Africa before turning his camera closer to his home of Florida. Despite the Everglades being drastically different from most of the national parks, the same qualities can be seen in how Ward documents the area.

Yellowstone and Moran

We have talked a lot about the National Parks in this course (obviously). We have also touched on how instrumental artists were at bringing the images to the public, and offering a glance as to what wonders hid out in the Western wilderness. For my final art interpretation for this course, I would like to talk about a work in particular related to the world’s first National Park, Yellowstone.

Representations of Paradise

Jan Brueghel the Elder, Earth (The Earthly Paradise

The first thing you notice when looking at Jan Brueghel the Elder’s oil on copper painting Earth: The Earthly Paradise (1618) (also known as The Allegory of Earth) is the sheer number of animals taking up the lower half of the composition. Other animals, mainly birds, are spread more sporadically through the top half. There appears to be only one of most of the animals. There are even more beasts hidden within the forest that are only visible upon very close inspection. All of these animals being in the foreground, makes the viewer know immediately that this scene takes place in Eden; only here could all of these creatures coexist peacefully.

America’s Wilderness

Ansel Adams is a well known artist that captured marvelous images of landscapes. He was a conservationist that encouraged respect towards the environment and seemed to portray that in his photographs. Every photo captured by Adams was well planned and gave nature a tranquil feel. The photo below was taken from a vantage point that gives a notion of nature being untouched. There are no humans, no vehicles, no visible trails, and no roads. It is almost like Adams is the first person to see the landscape, almost as if it is virgin territory and he wants others to experience in that sense.

Telling a Story

It’s amazing how landscape art can tell a story of American history, without so much as a single word being portrayed in the piece. Here we see The Lackawanna Valley, a piece made by George Inness in 1855. While the meaning may change by our view of things today, at the time this was an image of inspiration and power. America’s landscapes were being cleared, all of the trees being cut down, in order to further expand westward. We see in this image that most of the trees in the foreground have been cut down, most likely to create the railroad for the train that is seen in the mid-ground of this painting. Rather than being saddened by this destruction of forests, people of the day would have been thrilled to see this expansion.

What appears to be a farmer is resting lazily in the foreground in the newly cut pastoral field. This land may very well become farmland for the farmer. The train is at enough distance that its smell and noise do not seem to disturb the restfulness of this man, nor the painting he is resting within. In fact, the train seems to feel like it belongs there. In an odd way, this image seems to suggest a unification of man with nature, than than a destruction of nature by man. The town in the distance becomes an extension of the forest that still remains, and the train drags the town down into the clearing where no manmade structures yet stand. This odd sort of unification is what Americans felt they were achieving at the time, a oneness with their countryside.

Exploring the Untouched Landscape

While getting lost in the world of internet, I discovered the photographic work of the German photographer, Bernhard Edmaier: http://bernhardedmaier.reacore.net/site/en/home.idx.php.                                         Edmaier is an aerial photographer, and photographs landscapes “which have emerged in the course of natural geological processes, without any human influence or manipulation.”  As Edmaier’s work depicts such scenes, his images appear to be abstract and even surreal.  For example, the photograph of Brennisteinsalda, Iceland, which is part of his series on volcanoes, depicts a landscape that was part of “a volcanic massif that was buried beneath a huge glacial sheet during the ice age […] the rock has been penetrated by hot sulfurous vapors.  After the ice disappeared, rivers carved into the rock.  Around AD 1480, a great hot lava flow […] poured out of the mountain’s eastern flank and solidified.”

Wanderer Above the Mist

Caspar David Friedrich was a 19^th century German Romantic landscape painter. His work centered on the natural beauty found in nature. Friedrich found a great sense of peace in the countryside, and he aspired to communicate this feeling through his paintings. Friedrich studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Friedrich’s work is renowned for his symbolic landscapes. This post is an artistic analysis of the painting, “Wanderer Above the Mists,” 1817-1818 by Caspar David Friedrich. Art can be evaluated through the components and representation of the work. An art interpretation explains the artistic elements, and the meaning of the piece. This blog post centers on descriptions and explanations of the content, composition, symbolism, color, light, and space of Friedrich’s painting, “Wanderer Above the Mists,” 1817-1818.

People and Nature in Two Works by Salvator Rosa

Bandits on a Rocky Coast (c.1656) by Salvator Rosa

In Salvator Rosa’s Bandits on a Rocky Coast (c. 1656), there is a fairly obvious diagonal line separating the top left half of the composition from the bottom right. Though the sky depicted in the scene is a light and cheerful blue, the clouds coming through it from the right look dark, as if a storm is coming through. The border is clean except for the top of the painting, where it almost appears as though the canvas is being taken over by the grey clouds. Before looking closely at the image, it appears that the landscape on the right of the image is simply a mass of black; however, the space is highly detailed, with many plants and intricate edges of the jagged cliffs, and a small natural bridge. A rough tree stands prominently on this side of the image, with its few branches twisted. This land is on the edge of a body of water, and though only a relative sliver of this water is visible, it gives the impression that it is expansive, and perhaps holds more of civilization on the other side of it. On the bottom of the left side, eight figures (the bandits named in the title) are gathered together at the water’s edge, perhaps plotting together.

Conservationist

Hello All,

Our discussion on photography in class tonight introduced me to a new photographer/conservationist: Carlton Ward, (I attached his website incase you are interested).  Carlton is a modern photographer, conservationist, and farmer.  His work focuses on preserving the natural world and attracting people to the ideas of conserving our surroundings.

The photograph was taken in a National Park in Flordia by Carlton Ward. I agree with what Carlton is doing with his work and wish more photographers took after his ambitious heart.  Carlton has created The Nature Conservancy and is work is based on the conservation of the wetlands, everglades,  and water resources not only in Florida, but in 30 countries and all 50 states.  Carlton has exceeded his limitations and societies limitations by adding more acres to The Nature Conservancy and jointly working with The Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation.

The photograph above speaks in volumes to me. I have never been to the everglades, or deep into Florida, but from the image, I must go.  The wetlands house thousands of rare species of plants and animals that I have only seen in books or on TV.  The idea of documenting these places for conservation and attraction to these places is a brilliant idea and needs more documentation.  As Americans, we want to be able to show our children and our grandchildren these images of how things use to be. Yet, if we continue at this rate of destruction and pollution, these images may be the only thing left we have to show future generations.  The idea of documenting these places just to show future generations of how things used to be is a great example of why we need conservationists like Ward to help spike the awareness of the decline in attention to these areas.  In America, and other countries we are doing a lot towards the conservation of our planet and our environment.  Yet, I believe it is important for people to be focused on the parts of the world that need to be conserved and saved from pollution and other environmental matters.  Conservationists and photographers like Ward are doing all of the right things to help with this movement and it makes me very proud and excited to be studying photography and to know I could somehow help one day.  The image above is a place I want to visit one day, to be in nature, wilderness, and be surrounded by rare species of animals and plants.  I would love to see endangered animals and plants that might not be here 20 years from now.  It is sad to me that these are the measures we have to take to get the attention from the media and the people, but it is needed.  The attention is needed indefinitely due to the downward spiral of the environment.  I am thankful for Ward and his attributions to the National Parks and wilderness. I am thankful that America still has areas that are preserved and are not exposed to the public. Hopefully more people will pay attention to areas needing conservation and do something about it, like Carlton Ward.

Interpretation: Mount Williamson – Clearing Storm

I apologize for my posts being late. I don’t know if I’ll get credit for these or not, but I figured I would try and get them in before midnight, anyway.

I decided that I would talk about a photograph we haven’t seen in class or is on the gallery page for my third Art Interpretation article. The photograph in question is by an artist we talked about his evening. I am referring to Ansel Adams, and a particular photograph he took in the Sierra Nevada. Though not directly related to the National Parks, I believe the following photograph is an example of how his mastery of the medium conveys his conservationist ideals and a reflection of how different people view the landscape.