Landscape / Seascape.
Norwall S. Røsvik
Hello.
The last years, I have seen the term "seascape" - even "manscape" - on
titles of paintings or photographies. I guess these are quite new terms
and constructed from the word "landscape". English is not my mother
language and I wonder therefore what a "seascape" is. A picture from the
seaside with some rocks in the foreground and big ocean waves as the
main motiv - is that a seascape or a landscape? A manscape is a
landscape contructed by man, I guess.
Maybe these words are not in the English/American vocabulare at all? I
don't know. Can anyone clearify this?
Best regards
Norwall S. Rosvik.
lemonade
<nroe...@online.no> wrote:
> The last years, I have seen the term "seascape" - even "manscape" - on
> titles of paintings or photographies. I guess these are quite new terms
> and constructed from the word "landscape". English is not my mother
> language and I wonder therefore what a "seascape" is. A picture from the
> seaside with some rocks in the foreground and big ocean waves as the
> main motiv - is that a seascape or a landscape? A manscape is a
> landscape contructed by man, I guess.
> Maybe these words are not in the English/American vocabulare at all? I
Both landscape and seascape are traditional English words that have been
around a long time. My little pre-war Oxford dictionary has seascape, which
it defines as a "sea-piece", i.e. a picture with the sea as the main
subject. By contrast it defines landscape as either a piece of inland
scenery, or a picture of it.
Manscape on the other hand is an ugly neologism. I suppose it might be
being used to mean a picture of artificial terrain, but if it followed the
pattern of the old terms, it would be a picture of a man as scenery, akin
to those shots of naked women that look at first glance like a landscape of
desert sand dunes.
--
Due to the intolerable volume of spam these days, I no longer supply a
valid email address.
L. J. Powell
> December 1, 1998
>
> Hello.
>
> The last years, I have seen the term "seascape" - even "manscape" - on
> titles of paintings or photographies. I guess these are quite new terms
> and constructed from the word "landscape". English is not my mother
> language and I wonder therefore what a "seascape" is. A picture from the
> seaside with some rocks in the foreground and big ocean waves as the
> main motiv - is that a seascape or a landscape? A manscape is a
> landscape contructed by man, I guess.
> Maybe these words are not in the English/American vocabulare at all? I
> don't know. Can anyone clearify this?
>
> Best regards
> Norwall S. Rosvik.
The English language is not a precise language and is often abused. A
"landscape" is a picture of the land, a "seascape" is a picture in which the
sea is a prominent component (it is not clear what one would call a picture
in which the prominent component is a lake - a "lakescape" perhaps). A
"manscape" I would think is a picture in which the human body is
photographed, but the intention is to emphasize the topology of the body
rather than to create a recognizable likeness of any specific individual.
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Louie J. Powell, APSA
Glenville, NY USA
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Maison/7881/
"Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Philip Hiscock
human body. Another meaning is being used this week in the (playful)
title of a joint showing by five visual artists (one of whom is a
photographer, but I think he's not exhibiting his photos) here in
St John's, Newfoundland. The five exhibitors have explained the
show's title, "Manscape," as referring to the facts that all five
are men and all five are doing landscape. (At least one of them
might be said to be working in seascapes, too...)
Philip Hiscock