As an orientation of the image, landscape photography mirrors the human eye’s perspective. Formalistically, the photograph successfully establishes its subject in relation to its environment. That is if the photograph contains a subject; as a distinct approach, the landscape, as a subject of its own, is often regarded in Western culture as a more neutral image, void of the impulses of humanity. In thinking alongside the iconic work of Santu Mofokeng, The landscape is an emotional thing is a presentation that ruminates on the history of our contemporary South African photography and its progression. Composed of a concise cohort of contemporary women photographers, the landscape emerges as a conceptual meeting point for a number of these artists. If not the rolling hills and jagged city skylines themselves, there is a prominent focus on place as being not only a site for physical but metaphysical exploration. This exhibition does not position itself as a survey of landscape photography as practised by women artists. Instead, even with its works that could more formally be regarded as (self-)portraiture, place is an emotional backdrop. The works articulate a keen sensitivity to the places we come from, the homes we’re torn from and further speculate on the future of where we are going. The works themselves do not simply capture people and places, but inquire as to the intangible currents between them that shape the form of both.