American Geography: Pictures of the Land, from the Mid-19th century to the Present

OLLI Class taught by Sandra S. Phillips, Fall 2020

This class examines how we have represented land use in the United Stated in photographs from the mid-19th century to our own time chronologically. I will suggest readings a little later.

The course will examine and discuss the following topics in this order:

1. How did photographers in the 19th century think of land in the tradition of portraiture? The Southworth and Hawes partnership in Boston. Daguerreotypes in the Northeast, the rise of industrialism in the tradition of farming, the Erie Canal, the growth of New York City. Other centers for photography of land in the 19th century, St. Louis, the “Gateway to the West,” and the work of Thomas Martin Easterly who documented its citizens and environs, and the many pictures made during the Gold Rush in Northern California.

2. Regional photography before and after the Civil War in the Northeast, Midwest and South, and the land uses sustained in these regions. The construction of the railroad and expeditionary photography in the West sponsored by the government after the Civil War. The development of the West.

3. The evolution of tourism and the development of the pocket camera by Kodak, the evolution of the automobile, National Parks and tourism. How did travel for pleasure evolve in the U.S., when and where? A discussion of the sites Niagara Falls, Yosemite and Yellowstone, their role in American history.

4. Ansel Adams’s role in photography of the West, in the evolution of the Sierra Club, and considering the use of photography to achieve broad conservation ideals from the 1930s to his defense of conservation to Ronald Reagan. His partnership with Nancy Newhall, their book, This is the American Earth , 1960, compared to the other major photographic book of the period, The Family of Man, 1955.

5. The rise of photography as an art practice, the role of John Szarkowski at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1960s- 1970s, as well as other institutions (including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art). The evolution of galleries to sell fine print photography. The appearance of photography in art schools. Important publications following Adams’s publishing practice.

6. The new role of documentary photography initiated by Walker Evans, his two shows at the Museum of Modern Art, in 1938 and 1971, his meaning for the next two generations of photography: Robert Frank, and later Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, and what they saw driving around the country.

7. The New Topographics exhibition at George Eastman House in Rochester New York, the home of Eastman Kodak Company and Xerox. An examination of the work of Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Frank Gohlke, and Stephen Shore, the only photographer working in color The rise of color photography, the New Color Photography published in 1981, the emergence of William Eggleston with photographs in his native South, and Joel Meyerowitz, a photographer of Provincetown, Mass., in the summer months.

8. Younger photographers working today, including Alec Soth, in his book, Sleeping by the Mississippi, Mitch Epstein, Mark Ruwedel, Trevor Paglan and new technologies, and mapping technologies used by Mishka Henner, women including Terry Evans, Barbara Bosworth and others, and Hispanic and Native American artists.

This course will also discuss the major photographic publications produced from the 1930s to the present that deal with this topic. Some of these are rare, most have been republished and are easily available. If it is possible for you to examine them personally, they would be a useful way to broaden your understanding of the topic. I include here the date of first printing:

Walker Evans, American Photographs. First published 1938. Edward and Charis Wilson Weston, California and the West, 1940 Paul Strand and NancyNewhall, Time in New England, 1950 Edward Steichen, The Family of Man, 1955 Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall, This is the American Earth, 1960 Ed Ruscha, Twentysix Gasoline Stations, 1963 John Szarkowski, The Photographer’s Eye, 1966 Robert Adams, The New West, 1974 New Topographics,Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, 1975 Lee Friedlander, The American Monument, 1976 John Szarkowski, William Eggleston’s Guide, 1976 Stephen Shore, Uncommon Places, 1982 Richard Misrach, Bravo 20: The Bombing of the American West, 1983 Mark Klett, Ellen Manchester, et al., Second View: The Rephotographic Survery Project, 1984