"The world beneath our feet is a special one. It's a landscape that can manifest as much glory as larger scenes." ~ John Fielder
"The shape of the landscape is an ancient and silent form of consciousness. Mountains are huge contemplatives. Rivers and streams offer voice; they are the tears of the earth's joy and despair. The earth is full of soul." ~ John O'Donohue, "Anam Cara"
"The term Intimate Landscapes is attributed to Eliot Porter, a pioneer of colour landscape photography. You will likely find mentions of it in a wide variety of articles and books by any number of notable photographers, yet most are careful not to accurately define the term, and rightly so. Intimacy implies an emotional and personal context that any one of us may (and should) interpret and apply individually.
Intimate landscape is one that falls between grand scenics, drawing their power from sheer enormity and majesty of a subject, and extreme close-ups, relying on magnification of a subject, evoking interest from the mere fact that these sights are not often possible with or apparent to the naked eye. The Intimate Landscape does not rely on interesting subjects or optical effects alone – it encompasses a relatively small number of elements and draws its power from composition - the arrangement of the various elements relative to each other and to the frame boundaries. Intimate Landscapes do not dictate subject scale, or specific perspectives or focal lengths. Like a floral arrangement or a haiku it relies on establishing structure and order and ulterior meaning from an arrangement of elements – a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. As such, Intimate Landscapes provide a fine-art photographer with great freedom to express his or her vision. The image does not rely on any prominent landmark or any one particularly interesting element. It's about the deliberate thought and insight of putting the elements together in that particular arrangement." ~ Guy Tal
