Landscapes without memory: an analysis of Joan Fontcuberta's landscapes in “Orogenesis”

Abstract

Joan Fontcuberta has been known since the 1970s by the slippery nature of her photographs. In this article we analyze the photographic project "Orogenesis", formed by images of landscapes created by software through paintings and photographs chosen by the artist. We think of the landscape as a project of representation of natural beauty versus the imaginative creation of Fontcuberta. The theoretical reference is formed by Fontcuberta himself and Vilém Flusser, in an attempt to unite the two theorists' thinking. We used three photographs of the project as a basis for the analysis and concluded that there is a rupture or confrontation between the new and the old photograph, because of changes in the technological paradigm that define new paths and functions for the photographic image.