Willson Cummer – Page 36 – New Landscape Photography

Oblivion leaves sediments too. On the surface of cities or in the depth of the sea. It may in time become memory.

The Mediterranean is the geological and intangible heritage of all these sedimentations — open basin or cosmopolitan diversity graveyard to three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe.

I have explored Mediterranean territories and cities such as Beirut, Athens, Palermo, Tripoli, Barcelona, Marseilles, Alexandria and Cagliari.

My eyes are those of an urban geologist, but my gaze is erratic: I stroll its landscapes as if self-exiled.

Sedimentations of songs, stories, myths, migrations & longings leave a trace behind my path, some visible and some hidden.

Layout and stratification, alienation, raw fiction, the poetics of light and humor all play their part in this narrative.

— Georges Salameh, Palermo, Italy

March 20, 2014March 20, 2014

Rebecca Sharplin-Hughes

www.RebeccaSharplinHughesPhotography.com

Greenham Common is land that was once heavily used by the Ministry of Defense and the US air force throughout World War II and the Cold War. Abandoned in 1997, it was left open for the public to roam.

Control towers, missile silos and remnants of the once-longest runway in Europe were left behind, giving individuals access to an area that was once of high security and importance.

Methods of perception in the military are just as important as physical weapons used for destruction, with infrared film being a key method of perception for the military. Therefore I photographed using infrared film to express the invisible happenings that occurred on the landscape. With rumors of nuclear activity and other unknown activities, it is a landscape that stands witness to many undisclosed goings-on.

— Rebecca Sharplin-Hughes, Reading, United Kingdom

March 17, 2014February 21, 2014

Pete Grady

www.GradyPhoto.com

There is a seam between the remarkable and the overlooked. That’s where I try to hang out. There are arrangements of forms that stimulate my interest regardless of subject matter. A mountain is a mountain, whether it is made of rock or rubber.

Built into those forms are texts. The objects often align themselves in a way whereby they talk to each other. Finding that alignment can reveal humor, ambiguity, curiosity, tenderness, foreboding.

I’m not too keen to find other’s tripod holes. There are only two or three books that I have read twice. I make my stew a little different each time. At the market, I reach for the unfamiliar bottle of wine. But I return again and again to visit with my friends.

For the most part there are no answers gained from making photographs. They usually freeze another question in mid-air. Never quite getting there is very satisfying.

— Pete Grady, Boise, Idaho

March 13, 2014February 21, 2014

Marie Hamel

www.MarieHamel.com

Since 2010 I have photographed with a view camera the fronts of neighborhood grocery stores in Paris by night. No human presence is fixed on the sensitive surface of the film, voluntarily.

Located in every neighborhood, often open late at night, those little grocery stores are typical (quintessential) of the Parisian urban landscape and urban life.

Point of exchange and meeting point for residents in the neighborhood, points of light in the sleepy town by night, these places gradually disappear, replaced by large retail chains.

With this disappearing it’s a page of French history intimately linked with North Africa that flies away, as well as know-how of how delicately to harmonize fruits and vegetables on colorful stalls, which still encounters the gray tarmac of the city to the delight of eyes — yes, but for how long?

— Marie Hamel, Paris

March 10, 2014February 20, 2014

Carol Dallaire

www.CDallairePaysagesLandscapes.ca

The photographs in Posts and Poles in Contemporary Landscapes are showing a reality impossible to forget and to not see, an invading presence in the urban landscape as much as in the rural landscape, stuck there in the ground, vertical more or less: the post or the pole.

Anyone with a camera, one day or another, has been frustrated by its annoying presence in his viewfinder; like a scar in the middle of a field, in front of a building or in the background behind someone. Here, instead of trying to remove it, I have used its presence to be part of the image, to create the landscape around it.

— Carol Dallaire, Jonquière, Québec, Canada

March 6, 2014February 22, 2014

Alan Kupchick

www.AlanKupchick.com

National parks are massive tourist attractions: spectacular nature and wildlife living side by side with cars, roads, signs, parking lots, RVs, gift shops, cafeterias, campsites and cabins.

It is the tentative relationship between nature and the affect of humanity that commands my attention when visiting a national park.

These three photographs from my Park Views portfolio and all my photographs are presented totally as seen with no digital manipulation or photo assemblage.

I hope the joy I felt in making these photographs and the absolute love and affection I have for the national parks comes through and whoever sees these pictures delights in them.

— Alan Kupchick, Santa Monica, California, USA

March 3, 2014February 19, 2014

Steve Meyler

www.SteveMeyler.com

Connected is part of a larger project that seeks to examine our current detachment from the rural landscape and the industrialisation of food production. It also touches upon our visual disruption of the land and our perception of the rural environment and its conservation.

The area photographed has been the subject of planning for some 10,000 homes since 1998. I have no doubt that due to the housing crisis in the UK these homes will be constructed, and only recently the leader of the opposition referred to this parcel of land directly and confirmed his commitment to construction.

The temporal nature of this area is what initially inspired the work, but as it progressed three different themes emerged. The photographs presented explore the concept of being connected, both in metaphor and actuality. The profusion of overhead power lines and other structures evident in these images, at first appeared an eyesore. As I contemplated my surroundings, I became aware that their presence provided an unexpected form of visual continuity.

— Steve Meyler, Stevenage, United Kingdom

February 27, 2014January 30, 2015

Martin Volman

www.MartinVolman.com

In these pictures there isn’t any human presence, but it can be seen in the belongings in the windows.

I wanted to show my urban sensibility related with my sociology studies, and also wanted to (re)ask this question: How do we humans live?

This urban sensibility is related to geometry and pattern repetitions, so it seems that the chaos has an apparent order. Does it really? I think the answer is no. Besides that, the cities are distressing and oppressing. There is no sky, there is no ground. There are many histories behind each window, behind each picture, but in the cities the distance prevents us from seeing it.

These images were taken in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay.

— Martin Volman, Buenos Aires, Argentina

February 24, 2014February 4, 2014

Murray Watson

www.MurrayWatson.net

I have always romanticized the European landscape. The books of my childhood were often set a world away, in forests of oak and birch. My forays into the environment around me were guided by these stories, influencing the plants and animals that captured my imagination. Whereas my interest in native flora and fauna was mostly scientific, I found creatures such as foxes and deer almost mythical and the woodlands of Europe fantastical.

This nostalgia for the English countryside also accompanied the colonial settlement of South East Australia and shaped its widespread transformation — the most important result of which was the introduction of a plethora of exotic species. The Australian landscape is an introduced one. Human influence on our environment runs deep. By acknowledging our involvement, we can better come to understand our place in the natural world.

— Murray Watson, Canberra, Australia

February 20, 2014February 20, 2014

Ryan Debolski

www.RyanDebolski.com

When I first traveled to Dubai I witnessed a city growing uncontrollably out of the desert. Construction sites lined with busses packed full of workers dotted the landscape in every direction. New buildings appeared by the hour. Roads detoured endlessly to make way for man-made lakes and islands. Hundreds of transmission towers suppling power to the metropolis’ increasing energy consumption appeared in the barren areas surrounding the city. I returned a few years later to a much different place. The economic collapse left an unfinished city stuck in the desert. I went throughout the city with a 4×5 camera to photograph the urban landscape that currently occupies a massive expanse of land. Development in many areas has slowed down considerably or even stopped completely, awaiting the funds necessary to complete projects. Buildings remain empty without any occupants in the city core. Pre-built neighborhoods devoid of residents resemble ghost towns. Outlying areas already master planned give the appearance of mirages in the distance. This apparent stagnation clashes with the expectations of the past and the realizations of the future. It’s a transitional period in a city without boundaries. I titled the project Unfinished City.

— Ryan Debolski, Detroit, Michigan, USA