Between'Fron+er'and'the'Back1 Garden''Contemporary'Responses' to'the'Land'

Robert'Adams' Lewis'Baltz' Bernd'and'Hilla'Becher' Joe'Deal' Frank'Gohlke' Nicholas'Nixon,'' John'SchoH' Stephen'Shore' Henry'Wessel'

Stephen Shore, Badlands National Monument, South Dakota, 1973

'Stephen'Shore,'Merced'River,'Yosemite'Valley,'1979'

Stephen Shore, Merced River, Yosemite Valley, 1979

Ansel Adams, Yosemite Valley, 1942

Stephen'Shore,'South'of'Klamath'Falls,'Oregon,'1973'

Joel Sternfeld, Architecture Museum, Provincetown, Mass., 1980

JOEL STERNFELD, McLean Virginia, December 4, 1978

Lewis Baltz, New Industrial Parks near Irvine CA, 1974

Lewis Baltz, West wall, Unoccupied Industrial Structure, 20 Airway Drive, Costa Mesa, 1974

Lewis Baltz, West wall, Unoccupied Industrial Structure, 20 Airway Drive, Costa Mesa, 1974'

Robert Adams, Burning Oil Sludge North of Denver, 1973

Robert'Adams,'East'from'Flagstaff Mountain, 1976

Bernd'and'Hilla'Becher,'Pitheads,'1974'

Bernd and Hilla Becher, Winding Towers, Belgium, 1971

Edward Burtynsky, Uranium Tailings #12,Elliot Lake, Ontario 1995

Edward Burtynsky, Oil Fields #19abBelridge, California, USA, 2003

David'Maisel, Terminal Mirage 24

David Maisel, Terminal Mirage 19, 2007

Richard'Misrach,''

Richard Misrach, Bomb, Destroyed Vehicle and Lone Rock, Bravo 20 Bombing Range, Nevada, 1986

Richard Misrach, Dead Cattle, Bravo 20 Nevada, 1987

'

John'Davies,'AgecroZ'Power'Sta+on,'Pendlebury,'Salford,'Greater'Manchester,'1983'

Keith'ArnaH,''From'the'series'A.O.N.B.'(Area'of'Outstanding'Natural'Beauty)''(1982'11984)'

Keith Arnatt, Untitled from the series A.O.N.B. (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), 1982-84

'

Walter Niedermayer, Shiga Kogen II, 2000

Jo'Spence,'Vic+misa+on,'1984'

Jem Southam, Brampford Speke, 1998

Justine Kurland, Leeks Gone to Seed, 2001

Simone Nieweg, Gepfluegter Acker, Neuss-Kapellen, 2001

'

Simone'Nieweg,'Larch'at'the'Edge'of'the'Field,'Willich,'1991'

Sophie'Ristelhueber,'Fait'(Fact),'1992'

Sophie Ristelhueber, Fait (Fact), 1992

'

Simon Norfolk: Afghanistan is unlike Sarajevo or Kigali or any other war-ravaged landscape I have ever photographed. In Kabul in particular, the devastation has a bizarre layering; the different destructive eras lying on top of each other. I was reminded of the story of Schliemann's discovery of the remains of the classical city of Troy in the 1870's; digging down, he found 9 cities layered upon each other, each one in its turn rebuilt and destroyed. Walking a Kabul street can be like walking through a Museum of the Archaeology of War - different moments of destruction lie like sediment on top of each other. There are places near Bagram Air Base or on the Shomali Plain where the front line has passed back and forth eight or nine times - each leaving a deadly flotsam of destroyed homes and fields seeded with landmines. The landscapes of Afghanistan are the scenes that I knew first from the 'Illustrated Children's Bible' given to me by my parents when I was a child. When David battled Goliath, these mountains and deserts were behind them. When Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, these fauna and flora were over his shoulders. More accurately, these landscapes are how my childish imagination pictured the Apocalypse or Armageddon; utter destruction on a massive, Babylonian scale bathed in the crystal light of a desert sunrise.