Modern Functions of Nature Photography

Lauren Anderson, Senior Research Project

Introduction

Note of explanation: this section and the next will focus on the functions of more inventive work created by leading photographers, not on the commodified, mass-produced art in ads, calendars, post cards, etc.

Nature photography with a strong sense of place offers an accessible window into the land. Regardless of whether one has the means to visit the place in the image, it captures the imagination by depicting what wildness still exists. Rebecca Solnit (2001) writes, “In response to arguments that wilderness was an elitist value, Wallace Stegner had coined the phrase “the geography of hope,” asserting that wilderness could instead be a place where everyone could locate their hopefulness, even if few actually entered it” (p. 115). We view photography and feel a deeper connection to the land in the picture. “The photographic work being done … is also important, of course, because the places are unavailable to the majority of us” (Adams, 1994, p. 169). Whether they are inaccessible because potential visitors lack the means to get to them or because they are closed to protect what remains, photography can help us realize our connection to wild places in lieu of traveling to them.

National Geographic Wallpaper Download

Photograph by Michael Medford

If a picture is truly worth a thousand words as the saying goes, then nature photography can also act as a powerful advocate for nature and its continued protection. Eliot Porter wrote:

“Photography is strong tool, a propaganda device, and a weapon for the defense of the environment… and therefore for the fostering of a healthy human race and even very likely for its survival. When used to its best advantage, dramatically, with uncompromising sharpness, it is a most powerful means for demonstrating the need for protecting and preserving the biota. This is because photographs wield a great force of conviction. Photographs are believed more than words; thus they can be used persuasively to show people who have never taken the trouble to look what is there. They can point out beauties and relationships not previously believed or suspect to exist” (n.d., p. 119).

Science versus Art in E.S.

A Brief History of Nature Photography in the U.S.

Modern Functions of Nature Photography

The Photography of Jim Brandenburg
Noteworthy Images
The Influence of Place in Brandenburg photography
Brandenburg's Impact on Conservation
Conclusion
Resources and Methods
Home

"You lose forever when you fail to know the land well enough to speak for it." The St. Olaf Natural Lands allow students to know the disappearing tallgrass prairie.

Jim Brandenburg, on whose work the later pages of this project focus, creates masterful photography that shows the viewer what exists in the forests of Northern Minnesota. Demonstrating the verity of photography described by Porter, his photographs have been used in Washington as highly successful advocates for the protection of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. While the original intent for nature photography might be, as James Balog (2004) puts it, to “use skill and imagination to reveal the mystery that has always been and will continue to be the natural world” (p. 89), a worthy effect is that people will take notice and act to protect the places in the photographs they love. Stephen Trimble, author of The Geography of Childhood, wrote that upon viewing nature photography, “the message [is] clear: go out into the land, stand up for it, fight its destruction – you lose forever when you fail to know the land well enough to speak for it” (Solnit, 2001, p. 116).

Nature photography also works to expand the sense of beauty in the viewer. Jim Brandenburg wrote in his North Woods Journal (1997) that his journeys in the BWCAW helped him “… recogniz[e] that in nature not all beauty is giant in scale” (p. 97). In a culture that seems obsessed with size and grandeur, photography provides a countercultural appreciation of details and of natural processes that operate outside of human control. Photographs that depict the truths of life and death, intricacies of different species, the interconnectedness of life, stillness, life at a different scale, a spirit of the land, and a sense of peace offer the viewer beauty in a very different sense.

Eliot Porter reminds us that “Much is missed is we have eyes only for the bright colors. Nature should be viewed without distinction… She makes no choice herself; everything that happens has equal significance. Nothing can be dispensed with. This is a common mistake that many people make: they think that half of nature can be destroyed – the uncomfortable half – while still retaining the acceptable and the pleasing side.” (Solnit, 2001, p. 124).

In Chased by the Light (1998), Jim Brandenburg artfully photographed deer consumed by other creatures, a reminder of the cycles of life and death in the North Woods. One of the true strengths of nature photography is that subjects in the natural world that would usually be seen as unpleasant or disturbing are made beautiful through the photographer’s lens.

Not all beauty is giant in scale nor bright in color.