OUT OF PLACE: RESTORING IDENTITY TO THE REGIONAL LANDSCAPE

ironies underlying the landscapes that provide our high standard of material well-being. His most recent work finds him staring literally into the lion’s mouth, pointing his Hasselblad at the voluptuous but deadly vapors that emanate from industrial smokestacks. Fascinated by the abstract splendor of these dramatic compositions, Pfahl has occasionally been forced to run for shelter when shifting winds have blown the toxic fumes his way. Why should landscape professionals be concerned with books like these that document the private artistic pursuits of landscape photographers? Like landscape planners, Adams, Pfahl, and the other photographers discussed in this review employ their talents to improve the relationship between people and the landscapes they inhabit. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, landscape designers paid considerable attention to the work of landscape painters; their creations-gardens, parks, and larger landscapes-provided ample evidence of their debt to the discoveries of their artistic brethren. Landscape, as currently conceived, is a product of the interaction between things in the world and the ways in which the world is seen. Landscape architects tend to concentrate on effecting changes on the physical side of this interaction, but such changes address only a part of the landscape equation. Changing the ways in which people see and value the landscape through landscape photography can create support for iInprovements in landscape planning. Equally important, photographers and other artists can, by altering our perceptions, create new and desirable landscapes even in the absence of changes in the actual physical environment itself. Given the apparent limits of the planning and design professions to control largescale environmental degradation, this sort of transformation becomes even more meaningful. As Robert Adams suggests, "If, as individuals, we can improve the geography only slightly, if at all, perhaps the more appropriately scaled subject for shaping is ourselves." It is to be hoped that the new landscapes engendered by these visual suggestions will embody not simply abstract formal lessons, but significant social, intellectual, and spiritual improvements in the ways we create and interact with the landscape. Timothy M. Davis is an Assistant Instructor in American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712.