Journals of traveling landscape painters or photographers?

November 18, 2012 12:45 PM

Journals of traveling landscape painters or photographers?

I’d like recommendations for journals of traveling landscape painters or photographers from any century and region of the world. Something like the journals of Edward Lear in Albania—quasi-ethnographic, but from the perspective of an artist traveling to a foreign land.

posted by Cwell to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

I recommend William Bartram's travel writings, collected here: Travels and Other Writings. Among other things, Bartram's description of Florida was the inspiration for Xanadu in Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan.

Bartram was a botanical illustrator and one of the first naturalists to explore the Southeast in the late 1700s, including Florida when it was owned by Spain. You can see some of his illustrations at the Florida Museum of Natural History's site here and here. He also spent time with Native American groups in the area, and they get some attention in his journals.
posted by Lost Cities at 1:13 PM on November 18, 2012

I'm currently have a disaster of a time importing some Google sync bookmarks, but if I managed to do it, I think I have some good ones to email...
posted by phaedon at 1:14 PM on November 18, 2012

You may enjoy the book published from Dan Eldon's journals, though it may not be exactly what you're looking for. Spoiler alert: Eldon was killed at 22 in Somalia and the book was collated posthumously.
posted by a halcyon day at 1:27 PM on November 18, 2012

Richard Dadd's Grand Tour deranged his mind, but left him with inspiration enough for a lifetime's painting, though confined to gray Bedlam.
posted by Scram at 8:21 PM on November 18, 2012

Edward Weston's Daybooks are worth a look. Weston isn't travelling but writes extensively about living in California and Mexico.

Bashō travelled extensively in his own land and wrote poetry as he wandered. His journals are beautiful.
posted by oulipian at 9:08 PM on November 28, 2012