User:Erik Schweitzer/sandbox

Spiral Journey
Spiral Journey was a photography exhibition conducted from 1967-1990 by Linda Connor in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. Connor wrote a book titled, Linda Connor:  Spiral Journey, to accompany the project. During her time on the exhibition she received multiple awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1979. The works primarily consist of landscape photography. She uses a 8x10 inch view camera and prints on slow contact print paper. Her aim for the project was to convey a connection throughout time and space across the Earth. Similarly in her other works she encouraged a connection with landscapes rather than something to conquer. In a talk, Connor had discussed Gretchen Garner's thesis, Reclaiming Paradise, claiming that male landscape photographers aim to 'conquer' the land with their photographs. She stated “is it too farfetched... to link man's passion for new lands, high places, the challenges of nature, landscape photography with pissing? This is territorial claiming and marking at its most basic. And what better place to piss off of than the top of a mountain-marking a vista."

Feminism in Career
One influence of Connor's career is feminism. Landscape photography has been dominated by male photographers, Connor chooses to make a new statement on landscape photography. Other female photographers, like Connor, "offer what amounts to an essentialist theory of women's landscape imagery, one that posits a more intimate, emotional response to Nature because women somehow have more affinity with it." In a talk, Connor had discussed Gretchen Garner's thesis, Reclaiming Paradise, claiming that male landscape photographers aim to 'conquer' the land with their photographs. She stated “is it too farfetched... to link man's passion for new lands, high places, the challenges of nature, landscape photography with pissing? This is territorial claiming and marking at its most basic. And what better place to piss off of than the top of a mountain-marking a vista." She feels that the male dominated scene of landscape photography has become a way to conquer nature, while she conveys a symbiotic relationship with nature.