Landscape photography

Long before the birth of photography, landscapes were a favourite subject for artists, and were a particular favourite of the Impressionists. Having greatly inspired the great painters, the success of landscapes with countless photographers was obvious.  The medium of photography made it possible to realise the ultimate ambition of the great naturalist painters. Thanks to photography, it is now possible to accurately retranscribe the topography of places and the rendering of light and atmosphere, to capture the details of a moment that will never be again. Choosing landscape for your interior design means travelling without leaving home. Nature has long been an unchanging backdrop, and many pioneers set down their heavy equipment on forest paths. A passionate experimenter, Gaspard-Felix Tournachon, alias Nadar, invented aerial views of towns and countryside from an airship. If landscape photography is an ode to nature and an invitation to travel, it is also urban, and sometimes critical, with, for example, the American photographers who grouped together under the banner of New Topographics in the 1960s, opening their eyes wide to soulless suburbs, anonymous industrial zones and horizons blocked by advertising hoardings.

Some photographers were more sensitive than others to the beauty of a landscape. Sereikaite Kristina and Yoann Cimier, for example, are two artists whose work is very similar, uncluttered and verging on abstraction. "Perspective" by Yoan Cimier is a great idea for a decoration. But in a more dramatic vein, you might prefer the work of Gustave Le Gray, particularly his photograph "Vague. Brisée", which makes an excellent gift idea.