Irresponsible behaviour

A benefit of social media is visually highlighting the actions of feckless landscape photographers, in this instance at Dockey woodland on the National Trust Ashridge Estate.

Getting photographers a bad name. On the closed paths @AshridgeNT pic.twitter.com/FBXdvRsqXx

— UKwildlifephotograph (@ukwildlifephoto) April 18, 2016

Auteur landscape photographers

France is a country noted for idealism and perhaps unsurprisingly where the concept of an auteur (author) director in film making, was first proposed by French film critics. Film directors deemed to be auteurs, were those individuals who imparted a distinctive quality on a film and also wrote the screenplay or worked closely with the screenwriter of the film. The author of a film could be also attributed to the screenwriter or as a collaborative effort. The concept of a film auteur was elaborated in auteur theory and auteur study now receives some emphasis in film studies. There are numerous interpretations on auteur theory and counterarguments, not unsurprisingly from producers, cinematographers, actors etc

I quite like the analogy between the film making roles and responsibilities of location scout,  cinematographer, screenwriter and film director and the authorship of images by a landscape photographer. The proposal for auteur landscape photographers would not be a universally popular one, especially in certain landscape photography media, cliques and communities. Auteur theory and study can highlight inconvenient truths.

Nonetheless, an auteur designation in landscape photography would differentiate auteurs from landscape photographers who appear content to make derivative photographs of iconic views and other tripod holed ground locations and also those who consciously plagiarise other photographers work. The attraction of auteurism might be the impetus needed to lift landscape photography out of its current malaise and stagnation.