ABSTRACT
The American landscape is infused with what Barthes calls myths: a semiotic structure that provides nations with a way to understand and create a unified identity. In the landscape, the myth is framed by the notion that within pristine landscapes one can find salvation from the ills of contemporary society. Photographing the untamed environment became a type of environmental religion, used to both represent the lands and argue for their preservation. But what happens when the pristine is, in fact, scarred by human hands? For contemporary landscape photographers, this seeming conflict offers a form of transformation of the myth of the American landscape itself. This chapter explores the work of three female landscape photographers in this context. The chapter argues that these photographers demonstrate how even within the death of a landscape, a beauty can be found. This results in a type of rebirth, not of the environment but of how we consider it. By pointing out the artificiality of the conceits of what is “natural,” the photographers force the audience to recognize that our myth of nature is, borrowing from Cronon, a highly human construction.
