Narratives in landscape photography: the narrative
type: CreativeWork
description: The aim ofthis thesis is to use practical and theoretical research to investigate the relationship of transitional landscapes with narrative. As transitional landscapes I refer to the photographic depiction of unorganised spaces situated between the rural and urban zones. The research engages in practical fieldwork and theoretical study. It comprises a written thesis and a visual output (photographic project). The theoretical part examines the historical framework focusing in the postmodern re-evaluations oflandscape photography. My research investigates if the iconographic austerity of transitional landscapes leads to interpretive austerity or on the contrary enhances their range of interpretations. The research methodology is influenced by theories that acknowledge the importance of the reader and it is qualitative and experimental. The research employs as key method visual questionnaires, which focus on the capacity of single images to prompt narrative interpretation. The groups of people that the questionnaires are distributed to, vary in their approach and regard of landscape and narrative. The results from this survey indicate how we perceive transitional landscapes, the type of narratives they suggest and what prompts them to interpret the images as specific narratives. The main findings ofthe study revealed that: 1. The iconographic austerity of transitional landscapes appears as a fertile ground for narratives as indicated by the high percentage of respondents who wrote narratives, the high percentage of narratives compared to descriptions and transformations and the respondents approach more as narrators rather than observers. 2. The respondents seemed to wish to categorise the transitional landscapes more as an urban or rural environment rather than a transitional environment. 3. A darker, closer to black & white landscape image is more responsive to narratives rather than the normal exposure and colour version of the same landscape image. Furthermore, tr…
abstract: The aim ofthis thesis is to use practical and theoretical research to investigate the relationship of transitional landscapes with narrative. As transitional landscapes I refer to the photographic depiction of unorganised spaces situated between the rural and urban zones. The research engages in practical fieldwork and theoretical study. It comprises a written thesis and a visual output (photographic project). The theoretical part examines the historical framework focusing in the postmodern re-evaluations oflandscape photography. My research investigates if the iconographic austerity of transitional landscapes leads to interpretive austerity or on the contrary enhances their range of interpretations. The research methodology is influenced by theories that acknowledge the importance of the reader and it is qualitative and experimental. The research employs as key method visual questionnaires, which focus on the capacity of single images to prompt narrative interpretation. The groups of people that the questionnaires are distributed to, vary in their approach and regard of landscape and narrative. The results from this survey indicate how we perceive transitional landscapes, the type of narratives they suggest and what prompts them to interpret the images as specific narratives. The main findings ofthe study revealed that: 1. The iconographic austerity of transitional landscapes appears as a fertile ground for narratives as indicated by the high percentage of respondents who wrote narratives, the high percentage of narratives compared to descriptions and transformations and the respondents approach more as narrators rather than observers. 2. The respondents seemed to wish to categorise the transitional landscapes more as an urban or rural environment rather than a transitional environment. 3. A darker, closer to black & white landscape image is more responsive to narratives rather than the normal exposure and colour version of the same landscape image. Furthermore, tr…
author: Skoufias, E.
date published: 2006
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:02:03Z
provider: University of Westminster
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Westminster

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.34737/92756