ABSTRACT
Characteristics of place contribute to our sense of home and identity; hence the notion of ‘homeland’. Landscape photography both documents region, nation or territory, inclusion, and exclusions, and simultaneously operates to reinforce or challenge perceptions of places, whether ours or that associated with others.
This essay, published in four languages (Flemish, French, German, and English) formed the afterword for the catalogue for an exhibition that I guest curated for the Centre des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Summer 2012. It includes work by 42 artists from the 27 nations of the European Union (then including the UK, but not yet including Croatia). In line with the EU motto, ‘united in diversity’, the aim was to reference historical and topographical differences on the one hand and, on the other, semiotic, and stylistic currencies within contemporary art photography that transcend regional specificity. The essay makes evident the conceptual thinking informing the exhibition through reference to histories and geographies of land use, trade, and travel routes (river, rail, and road), and political borders (land or sea) as well as to photographic practices as related to the construction of a sense of place.
