Landscape photography, when approached as a rephotographic practice, transcends its aesthetic role to become a method of inquiry into territorial transformation and collective memory. In Recollecting Landscapes, Notteboom (2011) examines a century-spanning visual archive of sixty Belgian sites, photographed across three periods (1904, 1980, and 2004), offering a nuanced methodology for understanding spatial and sociocultural evolution. Instead of focusing merely on the scenes captured, the article dissects how the presentation of images shapes interpretation, highlighting the didactic potential inherent in curated photographic sequences. This shifts attention to the semiotics of framing, sequencing, and juxtaposition, where the temporal tension between views becomes a site for reflection. Notteboom argues that such structured visual experiences act as tools for architectural education, prompting students to read landscapes not just as compositions but as palimpsests of layered interventions. Case in point, a formerly pastoral site transformed into a peri-urban enclave illustrates the subtle negotiations between preservation and progression, inviting analysis beyond surface aesthetics. Ultimately, this piece advocates for photography as a form of critical pedagogy, one that cultivates spatial literacy and stimulates interpretive thinking about place-making and transformation.
Notteboom, B., 2011. Recollecting Landscapes: landscape photography as a didactic tool. Architectural Research Quarterly, 15(1), pp.47–55. doi:10.1017/S1359135511000352.
