Patterns in a Scarred Landscape
Deforestation in Bolivia. Courtesy of Our Earth as Art.
Once a vast carpet of healthy vegetation and virgin forest, the Amazon rain forest is changing rapidly. This image of Bolivia shows dramatic deforestation in the Amazon Basin. Loggers have cut long paths into the forest, while ranchers have cleared large blocks for their herds. Fanning out from these clear-cut areas are settlements built in radial arrangements of fields and farms. Healthy vegetation appears bright red in this image.
First, let’s acknowledge the destruction that has created the content of this image and the power behind it. If you are interested, more information about the impacts can be found in this article at Mongabay.
However, if we can now disassociate ourselves from the cause, I want to consider the image on its own.
I think this is prudent because I believe understanding patterns is a key step in understanding cities. Many cities are organized by a forced pattern, most commonly seen as a grid, while many others grow by acretion in an organic manner. A reading of patterns within a city or the landscape could be viewed as a process of archaeology. They can reveal phases of growth, directions of growth, areas of destruction, etc. If we learn to extract these events in history, we can better position ourselves in the present in order to more intelligently transform our cities in the future.
However, like any moment in history, there are times for juxtaposition. Times when we need to create new patterns or patterns against the grain. In this vain, I feel there is a lot to be learned from photography. Our brains rely on recognition, from which we tend to look for patterns in nature. Yet, we tend to get bored when we do not detect variation.
Enter photography, and the lens of the photographer. In that still frame, one either catches the beginning or the limit of variation.
Other times, we catch a moment of superposition in which multiple patterns are recognizable at once. In my mind, this is actually where photography is most successful, and in that respect most useful. As contemporary cities become composed of multiple layers, skill in superposition becomes necessity.
Courtesy of jgrantmac.
Therefore, in the need to facilitate the development of this skill, I look to pattern in photography as a source of inspiration. I have a feed through Google Reader that links to every picture submitted to flickr tagged with pattern. Through this feed I have seen a broad range of patterns, many dull, but many quite beautiful.
As such, I will continue to share the more beautiful and interesting photographs I come across.
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