on photographing place
I am back home from photographing in New Mexico and teaching An Intimate Portrait of Place at Santa Fe Workshops. This morning I was reminded of a question raised by one of my students: Can you really capture a sense of place if you don’t live there? It’s a good question. My answer both then and now is, “Yes,” and I’d like explain why.
Long House at Bandelier National Monument was occupied approximately 1150-1550 AD. In addition to digging cavities into the sandstone walls, the Ancestral Pueblo people built out from the walls (as evidenced by the ground-level ruins and the round holes in the walls where vigas (beams) were once secured to create multi-story dwellings. If you look closely, you may also see petroglyphs.
Locations with a strong sense of place are those that are uniquely different from other places. With this in mind, it may actually be easier for someone who doesn’t live there to recognize what makes a place unique. These are often those features that have a way of catching the eye and awakening all of our senses—whether it is the light, terrain, architecture, culture or other elements. This is the very reason we love to photograph other places: They are different from what we see and experience from day to day. The challenge in photographing such a place is avoiding the cliches—finding ways to move beyond those elements that have been over-photographed or to photograph them in a creative way.
The other thing to understand about place is its personal aspect. In fact, it has been said that a landscape becomes a place when people attach meaning or emotion to it. It has to do with connection—how we relate to a place both individually and collectively. While those who live there may have deep, long-term attachments, we can all experience a strong sense of connection to a place. Haven’t you ever fallen in love with a place at first sight? Wherever we travel, we have reactions to places and these first impressions, as well as our deeper explorations, are important to the way we make photographs in a given location.
A room at the Hacienda, a 5,700-square-foot Territorial-style adobe residence dating to the mid-1700s at Los Luceros along the Rio Grande in Northern New Mexico.
There is no one way to convey a sense of place photographically. We will each choose different aspects of a place to highlight. We will do so based on our own curiosities, passions and experiences. And we will do so from our own unique perspectives—whether we like to document things, tell stories or create something more personal and expressive. Yes, those who live in a place will likely convey it differently from those visiting, but both are valid views. No two photographers will ever depict a place quite the same.
Still, conveying a sense of place requires digging deeper than a casual visitor might. It’s about looking beyond the obvious and paying closer attention to details that others often miss. It’s about forging our own connection with a place and looking at the history, culture and ways of sustaining life that helped shape a place. It is those discoveries and our emotional connections that help us convey what we find most compelling about a place.
Fall Teaching Schedule
Photographing Plants in the Studio. Four weeks beginning September 2. Fall is the perfect time to photograph cut flowers from your garden, as well as seedpods, fall leaves, the bounty from local farm stands and other natural objects that are abundant this time of year. You’ll learn how to create a simple studio in your home for photographing still life subjects with both natural light and inexpensive studio lights. (You can work exclusively with natural light if you prefer.) Discover a new way of working that will allow you to bring nature indoors throughout the year.
An Intimate Portrait of Place: Coastal Maine. October 7-11. Join me in Maine for a week of exploration into what gives this unique region a strong sense of place. We’ll visit the rocky coast, fishing villages, historic sites and more. Daily field trips offer ample photographic opportunities, plus we spend time in the classroom reviewing and discussing our work. We’ll also talk about how to go beyond the single image to convey deeper meaning through a series of photographs. This course will be hosted by Maine Media Workshops and based in the charming harbor town of Rockport.
Hi Lee Anne, thank you for sharing your thoughts on capturing place. I like how you say that each photographer has to create images that speak to her/his connection with a specific place, and how that’s filtered through our own experiences, memories, special ways of seeing. There are times when I struggle with photographing while I travel. My photography is intimate, and some landscapes or places I visit seem so grandiose and majestic. They feel quite the opposite of something small and quiet. I’ve found that using atypical lenses, such as various Lensbaby lenses, can help me find my voice when standing in front of something so special that it’s almost intimidating. This gives me a starting point. The other thing I do is look for unusual details.
Beautiful images. I love New Mexico and your images highlight what is so special about the place.