The history of landscape is at the same time a history of art. The eighteenth-century emergence of the picturesque was, as the name suggests, as much a response to painting as it was a response to nature. Land art blossomed as we realised the extent to which we had reformed the surface of the earth: Edward Chell has described the British motorway landscape of the late twentieth century as a sculpture in and of itself. Today, perhaps it is photography that is most closely aligned with the latest landscape aesthetic: weeds thrusting up through concrete; Modernism in ruins; green overgrowing grey; the straight lines of industry, memory’s curves.
This December sees an exhibition of contemporary landscape photography at Camden Image Gallery in London, featuring work by 22 photographers from across the world. Entitled Here From Now, the exhibition aims to showcase both the diversity of landscape photography and its connecting threads. We’ve picked out some of our favourite works from the show to give you a flavour of what to expect.
Here From Now is at Camden Image Gallery, London from 14th – 19th December 2014.
Image credits (from top to bottom): Kenneth O Halloran; Michael Lundgren; Jo Metson Scott; Charles Bouchaib; Harry Rose; Neta Dror; Stevie McGarrity-Alderdice.
