New Common Places

New common places are spaces that speak the language of the present—shaped by globalization and the erosion of geographic identity. As nature and tradition fade into curated and protected fragments, presented almost as rare commodities, these places reflect a shifting landscape where memory is at risk of being erased.

The photographs in the New Landscape do not dwell on the hues of sky, water, or earth. Instead, they focus on the forms and objects—houses, cars, buildings—that humans have imposed upon the land. Sometimes these elements clash with nature, sometimes they merely mark our presence: traces of settlement, movement, colonization. In every case, they fracture the link between landscape and its unique geography, giving rise to “non-places”—anonymous spaces where, as Marc Augé suggests, the global supersedes the local.

Here, depersonalization, repetition, and the loss of identity or place are not viewed as shortcomings, but as reflections of our time. The visual language of the new common places—logos, symbols, brands, materials, architecture—has become familiar, ingrained. These icons of modernity, once mundane, now quietly define our shared experience.