November 2016 – New Landscape Photography

When I was younger, I worked overly-complicated projects. My thesis dealt with chaos theory and was criticized as being a mathematical Waiting for Godot. Now I look at simpler things. I am inspired by color field painters, and surrealists as much as landscape photos and paintings. I’ve had a lot of trouble sleeping and my dreams and reality are still separate but by a lesser degree than they used to be. I only develop film about once a month and sometimes I see negatives I have only vague memories of shooting and there’s almost no difference between the memory of making the picture and a dream. To me it’s more about the feel of the shapes and the forms than what the actual content is. I think the pictures are uniquely Midwestern but that is by coincidence not intention. When I’m driving around the suburbs of Toledo, Ohio I see a lot of construction. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how but for me the construction sites have something to do with the sense of isolation of the suburbs, the idea that they are in a constant state of expansion is for me disheartening.

— John Walz, Toledo, Ohio

November 17, 2016November 10, 2016

Sixth Anniversary

On November 19, 2010, I created New Landscape Photography. A lot has changed since then. I have gone from publishing one image by each artist to featuring three, which I think gives a much fuller introduction to the work. I continue to ask artists to share statements. The blog has become an archive of over 500 statements — and of course, hundreds more images.

I recently decided to invite artists to resubmit work a year after they’ve been featured on the blog. There are many people whose work I published four or five years ago who are now on to new and interesting projects.

In addition to the blog, I created a Facebook group of the same name. It now has almost 2,800 members and is a lively forum for sharing work and ideas.

I’ve always enjoyed the blog’s international flavor, but I am starting a local photography project: to document the billion-dollar renovation in Syracuse of Interstate 81, one of our central highways. This is a group project and is online at Picture81.org. We will share work on Facebook as we develop our individual projects. Later we will approach local galleries and museums about exhibiting the pictures.

This blog would not be possible without the participation of hundreds of artists. Thank you so much! Your enthusiasm and images have lifted my spirits for six years and I hope that will continue for at least another six — in some format or other.

— Willson Cummer, Syracuse, New York

November 10, 2016September 27, 2017

Ben Gowertt

BenGowertt.de

Temporary still lifes

At construction sites in Europe on Sundays, I caught a wonderful art
of momentum…

Everything is constantly changing — between chaos and order,
building, demolition, rebuilding — but there are always moments in
process which exhibit some kind of momentum, perfection
and calmness — moments of rest and a certain romantic presence
between the continuously inexorable changes.

— Ben Gowertt, Muenster, Germany

November 3, 2016October 27, 2016

Marcus Held

AfterNature.net

The photobook Abrasion/Sedimentation deals with the construction of place through perceiving geological and semantic layers. The book itself utilizes the process of layering to presage a structural transparency of apparently obvious information. It describes a place and asks the question of its identity and identifiability.

Image and text layer are separated seemingly formal, but penetrate and layer each other associatively. Both layers are beyond the concrete and narrative. They lure the viewer with fragments and snippets, pretend a whole. However, this whole thing is always the product of the individual constructing capacity of the viewer.

Whether the land exists and where it is located is of little relevance. Text and image are abstracted and yet not without detail, thematic focus and realism. Landscape is visible and the attempt to recognize and decipher it is readable.

— Marcus Held, Leipzig, Germany