Oct. 15, 2015 2:00 PM -- Oct. 17, 2015 7:00 PM
“This conference highlights the pivotal role that New Mexicans played in a new understanding of everyday cultural landscapes,” said UNM professor Chris Wilson. “The leading theorist J. B. Jackson published his influential magazine Landscape from Santa Fe in the 1950s and 60s. While the UNM art department was ground zero in the 1970s for the New Topographics photographers who lavished as much care on post-war suburbia as an early generation had on natural wonders and historic monuments.”
Photo: © J.B. Jackson/UNM, 2015
Information and Registration: http://unmphotolandscape.com/
A French and American dialogue with two days of talks and discussions, three exhibitions, film screenings and social events.Speakers range from artist-photographers who have focused on vernacular landscapes to landscape architects employing photography in their design practices to historians and writers examining the use of photography in the evolution of cultural landscape theory particularly by and in the wake of J. B. Jackson.The conference will feature the findings of a three-year research initiative at the ENSP on the interface of landscape and photography, along with a number of the contributors to Drawn to Landscape: The Pioneering Work of J. B. Jackson, edited by Janet Mendelsohn and Chris Wilson, and slated for publication in conjunction with the conference.
French Speakers: Monique Sicard, Jordi Ballesta, Bruno Notteboom, Frédéric Pousin, Sabine Delcour, Marie-Madeleine Ozdoba, Raphaële Bertho, and Lin Chi-Ming.
U. S. Speakers: Timothy Davis, Paul Groth, Helen L. Horowitz, Matthew Coolidge, Miguel Gandert, Laurie Olin, Lucy Lippard and Chris Wilson.
Session Chairs: Brian Goldstein, Richard Longstreth, Chester Liebs, Virginia Scharff, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, Katya Crawford and Laura Harjo.
Ecole nationale supérieure du paysage de Versailles (ENSP)
School of Architecture and Planning, University of New Mexico
University Libraries, University of New Mexico
Audra Bellmore, Associate Professor, University Libraries
Katya Crawford, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture
Miguel Gandert, Distinguished Professor of Communications and Journalism
Brian Goldstein, Assistant Professor of Architecture
Laura Harjo, Assistant Professor of Community and Regional Planning
Gianna May, Masters student, History Department, Webmaster
Chris Wilson, Committee Chair, J. B. Jackson Chair of Cultural Landscape Studies
Jordi Ballesta, Contract researcher
Aurèle Crasson, Assistant Director at ITEM-CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
Sonial Keravel, Lecturer at the ENSP-Versailles
Marie-Hélène Loze, Associate Professor at the ENSP
Marie-Madeleine Ozdoba, Research Assistant at the ENSP
Monique Sicard, Researcher at the CNRS. Co-responsible for the ANR Program Phototpaysage
Frédéric Pousin, Research Director at the CNRS. Responsible for the ANR Program Phototpaysage
“Photographic Notes On the Road: J. B. Jackson, 1955-1989,” School of Architecture and Planning Gallery, October 15 - November 9, curator, Jordi Ballesta.
“Vernacular in Place: Old and New Topographic Photography,” UNM Art Museum, October 16 - December 12, curators, Miguel Gandert and Chris Wilson.
“Documenting the Cultural Landscape: The J.B. Jackson and Chester Liebs Collections.” October 15 - December 12, Center for Southwest Research, Zimmerman Library, curators, Audra Bellmore, Erin Fussell and Katelyn Bladel.
Drawings and Journal
In 1940 during World War II, J.B. Jackson enlisted in the U.S. Army. Within months, his language skills and European experience earned him the rank of captain, with assignment as a military intelligence officer. He served in the Ninth Infantry Division in North Africa and Sicily, and landed in Normandy on D-Day. From 1944 to 1945, as the division headquarters moved from chateau to chateau across France and Germany, Jackson combed the libraries of the resident landowners (as well as local book shops) for geographical information to prepare for future troop movements. He familiarized himself with the writings of twentieth-century French geographers, especially Pierre Defontaines. He taught himself how to interpret maps and aerial photographs as well as how to incorporate insights from postcards, guidebooks, and phrases gleaned from his interviews with captured soldiers. Jackson also learned how to conduct quick surveillance trips ahead of Allied lines. During this time, he began making landscape sketches.
Jackson returned to the United States in 1946 and drove cross-country to New Mexico. Influenced by his geographical studies in Europe, he was able to see and interpret the everyday American landscape in an entirely new way. He continued his landscape sketches and travel journals throughout his life.
Shown above and in case:
(Top) Chalk drawings, 1940-1960 from J.B. Jackson Pictorial Collection, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, PICT 000-633, Box 6, Folder 9
(Top) Sketches 1940-1990 from J.B. Jackson Pictorial Collection, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, PICT 000-633, Box 6, Folder 8
(Bottom) Topical notebook, pre-1960, J.B. Jackson Papers, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, MSS 633 BC, Box 3, Folder 7
Mantel
In 2011, the Center for Southwest Research J.B. Jackson Papers, 1808-1996 collection given by Helen Horowitz, Jackson’s literary executor, received additional personal items and mementos. Many of these personal items attest to his love of kitsch and popular culture and were displayed prominently on his mantel without hierarchy between tourist trinkets, hand crafts made by children and landscape research items.
In these cases are items from the mantel with a photo from Helen Horowitz from J.B. Jackson Papers, University of New Mexico, Center for Southwest Research, MSS 633 BC, Boxes 8-13