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  5. Framing the Field: Photography as a Lens for Landscape Architecture

Framing the Field: Photography as a Lens for Landscape Architecture

File(s)
Zhang_Yiyan_Thesis.pdf (6.62 MB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/128147
Collections
Landscape Architecture Professional Masters Projects
Author
Zhang, Yiyan
Abstract

This thesis presents an exploratory study at the intersection of photography and landscape architecture. It examines how photographic practice participates in the formation of landscape knowledge. The research combines fieldwork, image making, post processing, material presentation, and written reflection. Rather than treating photography only as a tool for site documentation, it approaches photographic practice as a way to encounter, interpret, and reconsider landscape. The project develops through repeated visits to Newman Municipal Golf Course and related sites across different seasons and stages. Informed by the theories and practices of photographers, artists, and landscape architects, each exploration considers a different way of seeing, framing, moving, editing, comparing, or sequencing. Photographs and written reflections document not only the resulting images, but also the decisions, limitations, and changes that emerge throughout the process. The thesis does not use this growing body of work to establish a fixed design method or to claim that photography provides complete knowledge of a site. It argues that photography can contribute to landscape architectural research by organizing movement and attention, making the conditions of seeing and judging more visible, and preserving relationships that may remain overlooked within conventional forms of site documentation. Photography is therefore understood as an exploratory operation that supports perception, comparison, and critical reflection in the formation of landscape knowledge.

Date Issued
2026
Keywords
photography
•
landscape architecture
•
landscape knowledge
•
photographic operation
•
visual research
•
fieldwork
•
RSVP Cycles
Committee Chair
Hogue, Martin
Committee Member
Vanucchi, Jamie
Degree Discipline
Landscape Architecture
Degree Name
M.L.A., Landscape Architecture
Degree Level
Master of Landscape Architecture
Type
dissertation or thesis

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