Like many of the UK photographers I’ve been enjoying recently, Sewell’s work exhibits a wonderful sense of place. The photographs are not so much a record of the views within the park as they are a look at the park and how it exists within the world. The views are an important element of the work, of course, but equally important are the signals of use that are found in the images.

The Heath will be released as a book in the near future, you can learn more and find out how to pre-order a special edition here.

Andy Sewell, from The Heath

Andy Sewell, from The Heath

Andy Sewell, from The Heath

Andy Sewell, from The Heath

Andy Sewell, from The Heath

Phil Underdown, from The Trappers Lament

Phil Underdown, from The Trappers Lament

Phil Underdown, from The Trappers Lament

I particularly appreciate Underdown’s project statement for this work. He leads us into the pictures without trying to overwhelm us with jargon and big ideas. The work is very personal, and his writing reflects that.

Images from some of his other projects below:

Phil Underdown, Grassland #188, from Grassland

Phil Underdown, Grassland #45353, from Grassland

Phil Underdown, Field 002.3 November 2004, from The Field

Phil Underdown, Tent Caterpillars 002.7 September 2006, from The Field/Tent Caterpillars

Much of Underdown’s work fits very well within the notion of “The New Pastoral” that I wrote about recently. There is an emphasis on open space and the beauty of light and natural forms, while never ignoring the human presence in the landscape. In The Trapper’s Lament, Underdown seeks to reconcile his own difficult decisions in the face of a destructive beaver population near his home. The viewer is exposed to hard truth in the warm glow of the Adirondack sunshine. In Grassland, he looks closely at a decommissioned airfield that is gradually reverting to a natural state. The wetland-turned-airfield-turned-grassland will never be exactly what it was; it is now uniquely the product of a collaboration between humans and nature.

Of course, I can’t ignore my personal connection to this work either. This is a landscape that I love, and Underdown is looking for insight into many of the same questions that I have. It is work that simultaneously reverential, curious, and critical; beautiful without being cloying. Underdown is doing everything that I love about landscape photography, and I will be following his work closely in the future.

Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant, Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, from the series Power Places, 1982 John Pfahl

The exhibition was a direct descendent of the New Topographics exhibition 15 years earlier (Baltz even makes an appearance in both), but with subtle differences. As Grungberg writes:

What separates the two exhibitions is the matter of the picturesque. The photographers in “New Topographics” sought to purge any trace of it from their pictures, while most of those in “The New American Pastoral” rely on it as a sign of both loss and possibility. One has to wonder, of course, whether they can have it both ways, and whether the picturesque can be enlisted for what are at heart political statements. There is after all something old-fashioned looking about these new pastoral landscapes, which may have to do with their implicit faith in the ability of traditional photography to illuminate contemporary problems.

Reading and re-reading that passage has given me some insight into my own work and that of others I follow closely. We are all descended from the New Topographics, but I think there is an important distinction in the way the subject is approached. Some of the work in New Topographics could be described as picturesque, but my overall impression of the exhibition, and much of the work that has followed, is documentary. The New American Pastoral work borrows the documentary aspect of New Topographics but wraps it up in a more traditional form. This is a somewhat blurry and subjective line, but I do think it’s an important one.

I think the term “New Pastoral” quite effectively captures the gist of much of my favorite contemporary work, and I’m surprised that I haven’t heard it used before. It may be that something else has come to replace it (of which I’m not aware), or that no one else finds this kind of classification necessary. Personally I feel like I’ve had this phrase on the tip of my tongue for years and I’m glad to finally be able to get it out.

Off the top of my head, here are a few of the major contemporary photographers whose work could fit into this New Pastoral group:

John Pfahl
Richard Misrach
Joel Sternfeld
Jem Southam
Clare Richardson
Gregory Conniff
Michael Lundgren
Karin Apollonia Mueller
Raymond Meeks

And of course there are many up-and-coming photographers whose work fits into this category. I would love to see a curator’s take on this subject in the 21st century.

-Gregory Conniff, from his introduction to his book Wild Edges

Lafayette County, Mississippi, Gregory Conniff , 2005

-Lee Friedlander, from his introduction to Lee Friedlander Photographs Frederick Law Olmstead Landscapes

I have been pecking away at the world myself and have a few photographs from the past winter to show for it. I’ll have something to share soon, I hope. I’ve been having some trouble with the weather these last few weeks, so mostly I just drive around Long Island and take notes on places I would eventually like to photograph if I ever get the chance.

Chris’s project involves the creation of a custom 360 degree panorama pinhole camera, based on a device called the Ovnipan. The camera will have a total of 6 pinhole apertures, each overlapping to create one continuous 6x21cm image on the film. The images above are simulations that Chris made with a digital SLR while the camera itself is still under construction.

Chris Hoge's panoramic pinhole camera, construction detail

Chris will also be using the Polaroid film in a modified SX-70. I’ll be checking in with Chris over the coming months and look forward to seeing how this project develops.

One more big thanks goes out to Mike Sinclair, who donated a significant amount of film for the grant. Thanks Mike!

Photograph from the series Boonville, by Timothy Briner

If you’re in the NYC area, be sure to catch the opening of Timothy Briner’s Boonville exhibition tonight at Daniel Cooney Fine Art. For some more background on Timothy’s work, here’s an interview I did with him over the summer for Too Much Chocolate.

Daniel Cooney Fine Art
511 West 25th street, #506
New York, NY 10001

Boonville opening January 7, 6-8 PM