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The Middle of Nowhere: The Photographic Search for an Unknown Landscape Brandy Dahrouge 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................2 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ........................................................................................3 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ..........................................................................................4 AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT .....................................................................................4 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................5 THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC SEARCH FOR AN UNKNOWN LANDSCAPE ..5 RESEARCH INFLUENCES.................................................................................................5 WHERE IS “THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE”? .........................................................................5 CHAPTER ONE: FINDING YOUR BEARINGS.............................................................8 BEING IN PLACE ..........................................................................................................8 NON-PLACE ...............................................................................................................9 LANDSCAPE AS PLACE.................................................................................................11 ‘NOWHERE’ IN LITERATURE.........................................................................................12 Utopia................................................................................................................12 Escape to Nature ................................................................................................13 ‘NOWHERE’ IN VISUAL CULTURE .................................................................................14 A Place of No One .............................................................................................15 WHEN “THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE” IS “THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE” ........................17 CHAPTER TWO: LOSING YOURSELF.......................................................................19 FEELING IN “THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE” .....................................................................19 BREAD CRUMBS . ..................................................................................................20 LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY .......................................................................................22 A PLACE WITH NO NAME ..........................................................................................24 VISUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NOWHERE .......................................................................25 NARRATIVE AND EXPERIENCE.......................................................................................26 PHOTOGRAPHING EVERYWHERE ..................................................................................27 FROM NOWHERE TO SOMEWHERE . AND BACK AGAIN ...............................................27 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY AND MEANING..............................................29 PHOTOGRAPHIC RESEARCH ........................................................................................29 CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSIONS............................................................................36 A WORLD OF NO ONE..............................................................................................36 SEARCH FOR THE UNKNOWN......................................................................................37 The Middle of Nowhere 2 Acknowledgements I am grateful to Rotary International for their support in the form of an Ambassadorial Scholarship, without which I could not have moved to Australia to further my education. I am thankful to the countless Rotarians I have met in both Canada and Australia who encouraged and supported me, and welcomed me into their clubs and lives. I am continually inspired by their generosity and commitment to community service. I am also thankful to the University of New South Wales for a University International Postgraduate Research Award. This award made it possible for me to complete my degree. I also want to thank my supervisors Gabrielle Finnane and Dr. Ross Harley for their insight, patience, and encouragement. If you have found this thesis useful, have comments, or would like to share ideas please do not hesitate to contact me. Brandy Dahrouge #9 Ray Avenue Red Deer, Alberta Canada T2P3B9 Email: [email protected] Website: www.brandydahrouge.com The Middle of Nowhere 3 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed …………………………………………….............. Date …………………………………………….............. The Middle of Nowhere 4 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.' Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………........................... AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’ Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………........................... The Middle of Nowhere 5 Introduction The Middle of Nowhere: The Photographic Search for an Unknown Landscape Nowhere: a space without determinacy, a place that lacks a location, a destination that is not anywhere. The idea itself is disorienting and confusing; a conundrum of opposites that are difficult to reconcile. Where then is “the middle of nowhere” and how can we find ourselves in the centre of a place that cannot be found? How is it possible to be in “nowhere”; to exist in space and time unrelated to place? Why do we use the phrase “the middle of nowhere” to describe how we feel in certain locations? Why does society (myself included) continue to look for new worlds and seemingly unexplored landscapes? Furthermore, what is the role of photography in helping us understand our relationship to the landscape and creating a connection to the unknown? Research Influences These are a few of the questions directing this research. My first impressions of the landscape around me formed while growing up on the prairies of Alberta in Canada. The land here seems to stretch to infinity with 180 degrees of sky blanketing its perfectly flat surface. I feel an inherent connection to this vast expanse of land, which can seem both harsh and alienating. I am drawn towards landscapes where there appears to be no one, and could be labeled as “the middle of nowhere”. It is here that I feel inspired to draw my camera. This research is an extension of my “Western” view (literally and figuratively) on the world and an examination of my response to the landscape of Canada and Australia. The search for “the middle of nowhere” and the identification as landscape being separate from ourselves, is typically the view from a fully industrialized nation. Where is “the middle of nowhere”? People regularly drop the phrase “the middle of nowhere” in everyday speech, in conversations that are invariably about travel. Semantically when dissected, the words “no+where” cannot be a place or a destination. Might they then refer to the space between places? “Nowhere” could refer to the journey itself: the gap between ports of The Middle of Nowhere 6 call on the traveler’s itinerary. We might say, “I got off the train in ‘the middle of nowhere’”. However, what we mean is: “I found myself in a place I did not recognize, far from where I intended to be. I am somewhere in-between my point of origin and my destination, in an unknown spot where there appears to be no one.” In this state, we literally feel out-of-place, confused, ungrounded, and lost. This sensation may be similar to what sociologist and theorist Edward Casey terms “displacement”. Casey holds that “ .

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