Photography’s Narrative Spaces – Stories About Man-Altered Landscape

Abstract

In the seminal text from 1982, Rosalind Krauss wrote about the discursive spaces of photography. She stated that varied interpretations of landscape photography depend on the image circulation. The "new topography" in photography provides in artistic language data on the situation of the natural environment. Therefore, it is not just a matter of changing fields of discourses but narratives through which discourses are created. In the paper I discuss the narrative contexts of photography, in regard to Krauss's concept of discourse and narratology by Mieke Bal. Examples are modern landscape photography in the new topography style. The goal of this artistic movement, which can be dated to the mid-1970s is to document and reflect on changes that occur in the environment through human activities (mainly related to industry). Today, however, artists' voices are increasingly commenting on climate change and environmental disaster. Therefore, these are activities that can be included in the field of environmental art (in regard to T. J. Demos concept) or, more broadly, criticisms directed towards capitalocene and anthropocene consequences. I will focus on three photographic projects presenting peripheral areas in Poland: documentation of the course of the Warta entitled 808.2 km by Waldemar Śliwczyński, Jedynka (No. 1) by Maciej Rawluk and Urodzaj (The Harvest) by Michał Woroniak.