Analyzing Thomas Cole's Essay On American Scenery

Accordingly, the nature was one of the Romantic themes adored by numerous readers during this era. The author’s description of untamed environment and striking sight inspires and impresses the readers. Soothing and relaxing people through these illustrations, author takes them away from the impersonal society. For example, The Most Sublime Spectacle on Earth by John Wesley Powell vividly displays the spectacular views of Grand Canyon to make readers forget the depraved reality. “The carving of the Grand Canyon is the work of rains and rivers,” Powell stresses that Grand Canyon is the splendid work of nature, not the artificial work of

In William Cronon’s book Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England, he discuses the ecological history of New England from the late sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century. He demonstrates how the New Englanders changed the land by illustrating the process of the change in the landscape and the environment. In the Preface Cronon states, “My thesis is simple: the shift from Indian to European dominance in New England entailed important changes—well known to historians—in the ways these people organized their lives, but it also involved fundamental reorganizations—less well-known to historians—in the region's plant

To understand where the motivation and passion to protect the environment was developed, one looks to the rapid deforestation of East Coast old-growth forests at the turn of the century. “As Gifford Pinchot expressed it, ‘The American Colossus was fiercely at work turning natural resources into money.’ ‘A

Berry’s mention of the farmer and an understanding of his farm is a constant theme in this essay. Agriculture, a distribution of products born from the earth and its entrance into our bodies as nourishment, describes an interdependence. The development of highways, industry, and daily routine of work and obligation, has caused a romanticization of wilderness. High mountain tops and deep forests are sold as “scenic.” Berry reminds the reader that wilderness had once bred communities and civilization, and that by direct use of the land, we are taught to respect and surrender to it. But by invention of skyscrapers, airplanes, we are able to sit higher than these mountain tops and this is his first representation of disconnect from Creation. Mechanical invention leads one to parallel themselves with godliness, magnifying self worth and a sense of significance. What is misunderstood is that through this magnification, because there is no control or limit, we “raise higher the cloud of megadeath.” Our significance is not proved by the weight of our material wealth, rather

As Adams pursued his work in both art and conservation the various lines of his life were beginning to converge revealing both the unity and the disjunction of his ideas. 137 His impact was felt on both spheres of influence. Using modern techniques of mass communications, Adams brought a vision of idealized wilderness to a broad audience and linked the environmental movement with nationalism and a romantic view of nature. The sustained popularity of his photographs illuminates a continuing public fascination with the wilderness landscape as both a place of beauty and a symbol of national identity and ideals. (Pacific 42) Most leaders within the conservation movement continued to share his ideal assuming that economic growth and wilderness

Carrie Breitbach’s (2009) “The Geographies of a More Just Food System: Building Landscapes for Social Reproduction” revolves around the idea of bringing justice to the food system by rectifying landscape and social reproduction as a solution in South Dakota. In contrast, Peirce F. Lewis’s “Axioms for Reading the Landscape,” focuses on how to read and understand landscapes through a set of rules which he calls “axioms.” In the “Geographic (or Ecological) Axiom,” Lewis argues that studying a landscape outside its location makes no sense in gaining cultural insight on the landscape (1979, 24). While Don Mitchell (2007, 43) in “New Axioms for the Landscape,” presents the idea that the shape of the land provides direction to its social life. He

Indeed other photographers are important for their photographs of land and nature. Notably, Adams is the most prolific contributor and documenter of the land, at least, that is, in America. It is, after all, Ansel Adams’s studio, home and legacy. Although Adams did focus on critically exposing social problems in society and remedy them, he was influential in shaping conservation legislation for open places and spaces in America. While the 1950s was not a time to “go green,” Adams understood then, just as photographers do now words are not enough.

The beautiful blossoms that bloom in Californian spring, the summer daisies alongside the cooling lake, long after the summer the trees have lost their leaves entering autumn to fresh white snow out in the mountains. Nature is able to show us its true beauty without any falseness and modifications. After all, is it not ironic how people go to museums to look at paintings of colorful flowers, green hills, and clear water streams; those are beauties that can easily be observed in real life outside of the urban environment which are surrounded by them, or how people buy recordings of the calming sounds of nature, similar to what you would listen to at night in the woods or smell nature aromas of the candles. What we are doing is trying to mislead our minds and pretend to think that we are in the woods but are instead cornered inside our small, well-furnished, and full -with-technology apartment.

In 1963, Porter shared his trip down the Colorado River to capture what would be lost if technological hubris prevailed. The Place No One Knew portrayed fragments of the canyon rather than broad sweeping scenic landscapes. Many criticized the book for too many close-up and abstract images that contrasted light and dark features of the canyon even though it did convey the hidden beauty of the canyon. Although costly, $25, The Place No One Knew was a large format book with color images and elegant craftsmanship of typographer and lithographer. One reviewer commented, “the book needed to be so large and to contain such high-quality prints and exquisite typography. By buying the book, particularly given its expensive price, Americans could gain atonement; through consumption, they could help pay for the sins of the nation” (Dunaway, 2005, p. 181). Critics claimed Porter’s photos demonstrated a duality between portraying the aesthetics of nature with scientific understanding for what is at stake. The Sierra Club continued work to protect the Colorado River along with advocating protection for other natural resources. They published more books communicating the struggles between progress and protection and this style of photography, I argue, lives on in contemporary works (see Ch.

He shows nature through scenes of being in danger of being destroyed by mankind by using natural elements to exemplify the aesthetic features of the sublime and incorporating small amounts of hidden detail showing a hunter hunting with a spear to represent the killing and destruction done by mankind. Or taking another approach by showing horses whom are running from their master in a field, indicating man's weakness to control wild animals – an inability to control man’s surroundings and the animals in it. He also shows the other side of mankind and the ability of man to appreciate his surroundings: A man in a rowboat is peacefully enjoying nature's gifts without disturbing them is seen in his painting View on the Catskill, Early Autumn. But although in this painting he shows man at harmony with nature, Cole's aim and intent was to recapture the scenic splendour, Cole used pencil sketches he had made years earlier to create the nostalgic vision of an era before the loggers and railroad builders came and spoiled the picturesque beauty of the Catskill Creek

In the history of the U.S. Forest Service, landscape architects have shaped conservation policies, but have often been unsung heroes, writers, visionaries and leaders. For instance, Arthur H. Carhart was the first U.S. Forest Service landscape architect and the first to realize the significance of conservation. From 1919 to 1923, Carhart created the recreational facilities of national forests in six states, from Superior Forest on Wisconsin’s Lake Superior to the San Isabel in southern Colorado. Furthermore, Carhart’s writings during his employment with the U.S. Forest Service are the standing pillars for the wilderness and recreation policies that exist today. Looking further back, in 1892 the father of landscape architecture - Frederick Law

During the late 1800s to the beginning of the 1900s advocacy for land ownership became a major issues that help shaped the United Stated environmental policy. The essay’s author recognizes transformation in the U.S environmental policy. Bissell writes, Wildlife are one example of the transition of policy formulation and the influence of culture and biological thought in the United States” (Bissell, 1998). Bissell not only explain this environmental shift but Joseph R. Desjardins provides detailed explanation in his book Environmental Ethics, he writes, “By the late nineteenth century, the United States had largely succeeded in these tasks, and most of the American landscape lay open for human use. During this period of tremendous industrial

Lopez urges us to consider the importance of landscape in our own lives. In the book's centerpiece essay, "The American Geographies," he writes that true

Gregory Crewdson’s untitled photograph from the series “Natural Wonder” presents an eerie close-up of a scene taking place in the woods. The attention of the audience is brought to a small fox who lies on its back, dead. Surrounding the fox are an abundance of overgrown grape vines. Perched atop the fox are three birds who stare questioningly at the site around them. Behind the copious amount of leaves and grapes is a somewhat cheerful looking, white background containing buildings and smoke, a noticeable difference from the forest scene which is more apparent to the audience. Through his placement of objects, use of color, and change of scenery, Crewdson expresses the negative effects of industrialization on wildlife.

century” which “distort[s the] view of the river and green mountains”, by painting a picture of the