As a filmmaker, I’ve always loved to discover new ways of seeing the world. A new shot with a new camera. A new perspective. A new format. I love matching a new capacity with experience. How do other people look at what they experience? How could we? How do animals?
No matter who the observer might be, it is often the location of the visual experience that shapes one’s perception of the landscape. The sailor’s gaze from the mid-Atlantic is different than the shuttle astronaut’s perspective from the upper atmosphere, which is different than the Sherpa’s view from the Himalayas. Landscape not only determines what is experienced and seen, but also how its residents look, and how those residents capture or organize what they see. Simply put, landscape—be it mountain, plain, atmosphere, or island—determines format.
