"The forerunner to many of our public gardens, including Cannizaro Park, began in the 18th century with the emergence of the English landscape garden. Landscape gardeners such as Humphry Repton (1752-1818) became hugely popular. People wanted the view of their garden to appear picturesque which meant “in the manner of a picture”, reflecting the paintings they had on their drawing room walls. Repton created idealised views based on his take on aesthetic qualities and the particular fashion of the time. He presented these views to his clients in one of his famous red sketchbooks.

 

The Way I See Our View  is a participatory art work where members of the public are asked to compose a photograph using a cardboard viewfinder and the camera on their mobile phone. By asking people to think about what they feel is important in terms of content, perspective, composition and overall aesthetic appearance it is hoped to create a collective positioning of what makes a landscape view in the 21st century.

 

Useful Websites:

 

Follow on Facebook where you can post your pictures, see other people’s contributions, join the discussion and to like the most successful landscapes:

 

https://www.facebook.com/thewayiseeourview

 

A couple of websites I found on Humphry Repton which were useful:

 

https://archive.org/details/observationsonth00rept

 

https://archive.org/details/fragmentsontheor00rept

 

http://www.themorgan.org/collection/Humphry-Reptons-Red-Books#self"

 

-Tim Alexander