ABSTRACT

This unique collection brings together the work of photography writer, curator, and lecturer, Liz Wells, reflecting on key themes of landscape, place, nationhood, and environmental concerns.

A newly written introductory chapter contextualizes the collection. This is followed by an ‘in conversation’ with Martha Langford, Concordia University, Montreal, that brings together two leading figures in the field to respond to Wells’ thought and the themes that emerge in her writings. The essays included in this anthology draw on work from a variety of sources including artists’ photobooks, exhibition catalogues, magazines, academic books, and journals. Seventeen previously published articles, organized thematically in relation to Curation and Residency, Phenomena, Place, and Critical Reflections, demonstrate Wells’ critical and curatorial approach to research through photographic practices, reflecting a core view of art (at its best) operating to convey the implications of what is being explored and to evoke responses that are simultaneously sensory and intellectual.

This collection will be essential reading for students and scholars of photography, visual culture, and art history, especially those examining landscape and environmental photography.

part I|30 pages

Critical Reflections

chapter 1|15 pages

Photography, Curation, Criticism

chapter 2|13 pages

Speaking of this Collection

A Conversation Between Martha Langford and Liz Wells

part II|38 pages

On Curation and Residency

chapter 3|15 pages

Curatorial Strategy as Critical Intervention

The Genesis of Facing East

chapter 4|16 pages

Landscapes of Exploration

chapter 5|5 pages

On Being Out of Place

part III|36 pages

Phenomena

chapter 6|14 pages

Icy Prospects

chapter 7|10 pages

Light Touch

chapter 8|10 pages

No Man's Land

Antarctica and the Contemporary Sublime

part IV|85 pages

Place

chapter 9|17 pages

Points of Departure

Currencies of the Post-Industrial Sublime

chapter 10|8 pages

Questions of Distance

chapter 11|15 pages

Photography, Nation, Nature

chapter 12|11 pages

A Man of the North

chapter 13|14 pages

Hidden Histories and Landscape Enigmas

chapter 14|13 pages

Histories and Imagination

Narrative and Metaphor in the Work of John Kippin

chapter 15|5 pages

Silent Witness

part V|64 pages

Critical Spaces

chapter 16|33 pages

Seeing Beyond Belief

Cultural Studies as an Approach to Analysing the Visual

chapter 17|6 pages

The Critical Forum

chapter 18|5 pages

Then and Now

Some Notes on Photography and Theory

chapter 19|18 pages

Modes of Investigation

On Photography and Environment