Work I Like – Page 34 – New Landscape Photography

Folkestone was one of the most important seaside resorts of England and for many years the centre of all British commerce with Europe, due to the fact that it had the only port where trains could directly reach ships.

When the Eurotunnel was inaugurated in 1994, there was a direct challenge to the ferries and this was a disadvantage for the city. Tourists started traveling by the tunnel, affecting the local economy. The terminal was forced to close in 2001 due to the lack of transit. This was the starting point of the crisis in Folkestone: high unemployment and people departing to other places in England.

When you go to Folkestone you find a place of lost remembrances, closed stores, empty bars and deserted streets. Walking by the misty coast you can see France and old people who have chosen this place to retire.

— Federico Estol, Montevideo, Uruguay

May 12, 2014

Michela Battaglia

www.MichelaBattaglia.com

Palermo is a den of missed opportunities and failures.

Palermo is an amazing city. Potentially.

It overwhelms you, you are powerless. It bewitches you and drags you down. You know it’s a bitch, but that is not enough to make you leave. The more I try to go away from it and settle somewhere else, through fate or a cosmic joke, the more my camera and I find ourselves back there, walking through its streets, its perfumes, its blinding light and thick shadows. 

When I leave Palermo, I don’t feel guilt, but anger, therefore love. So, I come back and photograph for the time that I can stay in apnea: I test my lungs and walk through Palermo holding my breath, only smelling and observing, chewing kilometers with an urge to scream louder and louder.

 Palermo Imploded is a photographic project divided into ten chapters, a collection of stories about Palermo. A series of “x-rays” which try to show the divide between what we are used to seeing and what we would prefer not to see.  The unifying theme in the project is Palermo’s contradictions, as well as my own in relation to the city.

My conflict is between hope and deep skepticism. 

They are different symptoms of the same disease.

— Michela Battaglia, New York City

Palermo Implosa - Coast to coast A side

May 8, 2014April 26, 2014

Jason Vaughn

www.JasonVaughnArt.com

hide began as a commentary on Wisconsin’s hunting tradition, using deer stands as a visual motif. When my sudden cancer diagnosis interrupted the project, hide took on a more personal meaning. I was inspired on drives through Wisconsin by deer stands, and began asking hunters about them. Some described building stands for the next generation, especially sons who would inherit the land. I was anticipating the birth of my own son and thinking about my legacy to him, so this idea resonated strongly with me. Others emphasized that the stands did not represent violence, but oneness with nature and time spent with their children. I wanted these photographs to capture that serenity. When I was diagnosed with leukemia in 2011, my work on hide was put on hold. I was 32 with a 3-month-old baby at home. Having to face mortality so unexpectedly made me come back to the project with a new perspective on the ideas of permanence and impermanence, legacies and family, and accepting change.

— Jason Vaughn, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

May 5, 2014April 26, 2014

Vince Baworouski

www.Baworouski.com

Many people take water for granted when they turn on the faucet and they drink water without thinking about its value. We need it. Each American, on average, consumes 100 gallons of water each day, whereas in other countries a person consumes as little as 1 gallon a day. When viewers examine my images in this series, I want them to consider from where our water comes, how many states rely on the Colorado River, and what will we do without water. Sustainability is an issue I care about personally, and I hope that viewers will be moved by the images to examine their personal relationship with water.

This current project has two main focuses: water production, the production of drinkable water, and water transportation, the delivery of water to the Coachella Valley via the All American Canal and Great American Canal. I am trying to show a sense of place through this photo series of the Twin Oaks Water Treatment Plant. Twin Oaks Water Treatment Plant processes 100 million gallons of water a day. While the plant is controlled by computers, highly trained individuals work behind the scene. Processing the water, employees test for any viruses or bacteria while delivering safe, drinkable water to the San Diego community.

The second part of this project explores the All American Canal and the Coachella Canal delivering water to the Coachella Valley. I try to visually represent through my photographs how the water is transported throughout the valley. Efficient water transportation is vital to the California agriculture and the nation’s economical growth. I love photographing the infrastructure because the network looks like a series of obscure objects out in the desert, but it has a vital role in the water system and our society.

— Vince Baworouski, San Marcos, California, USA

May 1, 2014April 26, 2014

Mitch Karunaratne

www.MitchKarunaratne.co.uk

Silver of the Sea

“Herring is one of this century’s principal shapers of Icelanders’ destinies. Without herring it is questionable whether the modern society that now exists in Iceland could ever have been developed.”

 – Icelandic Historical Atlas

Icelanders of a certain age still talk fondly of the “Herring Years,” when a season’s fishing could buy a young couple their first house, jobs were bountiful and money flowed freely.

In the late 1950’s, the fish left.

— Mitch Karunaratne, London

April 28, 2014March 26, 2014

Frédérick Carnet

www.FrédérickCarnet.com

Between wild untouched landscapes and urban areas — or just residential areas, the limits are both marked but still non-existent as nature is everywhere. I use this limit, the area in-between, as a field of police investigation, seeing each area photographed as a potential crime scene spot.

Though Iceland is one of the less criminal countries in the world, where the police seem bored, criminal literature is prolific. That’s why I proposed to Óttar Nordfjord, one of the brightest crime-novel authors, to write a short story in connection with these places that seem so calm but…

— Frédérick Carnet, Saint Marceau, France

1231-6 001

1197-11 001

April 24, 2014March 26, 2014

Camila Alvarez

APR 24 Camila Alvarez

www.CamilaAlvarez.com.ar

Photography was born looking in the mirror of figurative painting: the earliest photographers were painters who used the camera obscura to record reality.

Photography slowly became immersed in the positivist ideal of objectivity. However, in the late 19th century, some photographers who called themselves pictorialists, inspired by romanticism, gave more importance to feelings than technical perfectionism, through some imprecision in the images.

 My project, titled Still, was born from this need to paint with light. These are poetic images that ignore their connections with reality.

Usually, I take photographs in placid moments, during the holidays, as if summer could be eternal. In those moments of contemplation, I enjoy loneliness — that’s why the people who appear in my photographs are distant, and their bodies take part into the landscape. On the beach, their humanity is the same essence with nature.

— Camila Alvarez, Buenos Aires, Argentina

April 21, 2014March 26, 2014

Alejo Schatzky

www.AlejoSchatzky.com.ar

In the 365 Project I created one photograph per day. I don’t mean that I “took” a photo every day, but that I created an artwork each day. I used old photos of my own and some new ones I made specially for the project. In all cases the original photograph was taken with film (negative or slide). Then I made a new shot of the film using a digital camera.

At the beginning of the project I used to wrap the film into vegetable papers or things like that — in order to create optical distortions. Later I started to burn the film with fire and to use chemicals to deteriorate the originals. That’s how new colours appeared. The use of Photoshop is minimal.

The series itself proposes a timeless itinerary among places and landscapes that belong more to memory than to geography.

— Alejo Schatzky, Buenos Aires, Argentina

April 17, 2014March 28, 2014

Sarah Pannell

www.SarahPannell.com

For nearly two decades, my aunt and uncle have lived in Hong Kong as expats, so naturally it has always been a place I have been curious to visit and see for myself. When I eventually made it to Hong Kong for the first time in early 2013, I was struck by the varying nature of the landscapes I encountered — which contrasted greatly with my preconceptions of the city and its surrounding territories. At this point, over 70% of Hong Kong’s landmass remains undeveloped due to mountainous terrain and owing to the high population density in Central and the Kowloon Peninsula.

— Sarah Pannell, Melbourne, Australia

April 14, 2014March 26, 2014

Markus Lehr

www.MarkusLehr.com

Being fascinated by the ambiguity of our relationships with the city — its artifacts, its tools, its morphology and its topography, I seek out the forgotten, neglected places and try to read their stories: sad, amusing, beautiful and often very quiet.

I discover silent dialogues in these locations. Dialogues between foreground and background, between objects and subjects, between past and present, and, in the case of Berlin, between East and West.

My work is about celebrating humanity without the confines of having to show human beings. By focusing on the elements that tell the stories of our past without any true indication of time or place, the viewer is able to experience a world that is open to his own personal experience and interpretation.

— Markus Lehr, Berlin, Germany