Hey Tom,
I’m brand new to NPN, but I wrote about my own personal reasoning that has contributed to me moving from “grand scenic” photography to more intimate landscapes in my article in the current issue of Nature Vision magazine… so I’ll summarise by saying that for me, it’s a combination of care for the environment + desire for originality + wanting to visit less-frequented nature locations that has seen a shift in my own preferences. For me, it has absolutely nothing to do with trends… more to do with having more experience and developing a more thoughtful approach to landscape photography! If you’re at all interested in the much longer reasoning, the article is here - Originality & the Lure of the Intimate Landscape - Mieke Boynton
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My apologies Igor, I missed this and just caught up with it. Thank you for the kind words, and the additional thoughts. I learn so much from you, and really appreciate it.
Sorry, one more thing - I finally found time to sit down and watch Tim Parkin (from On Landscape magazine), Matt Payne (from F-Stop, Collaborate and Listen podcast) and Joe Cornish discuss this topic, amongst others. So again, if it’s a topic of interest, you might find their insights interesting also - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS0MwTn8fYM&t=2s
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@Mieke_Boynton , I haven’t have time to read your article in the magazine but I look forward to reading it! Hopefully I’ll have a bit of time now over the holidays.
Also, thank you for the link to the video - I’ll be sure to watch that too.
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I don’t know about anybody else, but I’ve preferred intimate landscapes (what I call “small scenes”) over grand landscapes for more than 45 years.
Cheers,
Franz Gisin
That’s great @franz ! I think everyone should do what they do because they want to do it , not because it’s what everyone else is doing in that moment. 
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I don’t know what is really trending. If I scroll through some social media, I get the impression that AI-generated madness is the thing. But that is not my thing, and I sense not yours of this community, either.
Maybe it is because I do not use Social Media as much as I used to in the past, I get the impression that landscape and nature images are less and less prominent in a short video and meme internet. That is not necessarily bad, because it opens up the doors for us to create work that is much more meaningful to ourselves instead of creating for likes and follows.
Whether that is with a wide, mid-range, or long lens doesn’t matter. I am mentoring an aspiring photographer at the moment, and it is really exciting to progress into more fulfilling and personal, meaningful images. And it is way beyond any genre, even.
I absolutely get the examples you mentioned at the start of this thread (and agree), but if there is a trend, it might be that photographers dig deeper into making photos for themselves. I get that from my students in workshops and mentoring, and I welcome this. In an increasingly difficult world, photography is a great way to look more into oneself and literally be grounded.
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