New York-based photographer Carolyn Marks Blackwood has a knack for capturing the natural world and the beauty that lies therein. Shot from her home in the Hudson Valley where light and big sky are at their best, Clouds is a collection of color and texture, endless abstractions that stretch far beyond the capture. Gallerist Alan Klotz says of the work:
The clouds are all about the colors present in the moment, dynamic and ephemeral. It’s hard to photograph clouds, not just because they are moving, nor because of the proprietary hold on them by Stieglitz and Constable, but because in order to be successful with clouds you almost have to get away from their identity…the pictures can be nebulous, but not cloud-like…they can be recognizable, but not common. These are not common, and like their Stieglitzian forebears they are non metaphorical equivalents, aspiring to the condition of music.
Departing from his comfort zone of photographing people compared to still-life, Shanghai-based photographer Egill Bjarki challenged himself with the creation of his colorful, eye-pleasing series Flora. Nature provided the inspiration and Bjarki filled in the rest, working in a big warehouse during one night shift to create the series. He says working through the night influenced the work; the images have a silent and glow-in-the-dark feel to them. Bjarki’s flora-scapes are smartly composed and balanced, shot straight on like the way he would a portrait. Electric and tantalizing, Flora is a perfect example of the power of light, color, texture and composition.
Metaphorically speaking, I feel that our consumption habits—specifically dealing with precious natural resources—are out of control and unsustainable. I also feel that not many people care enough about it because they won’t be around long enough to see the mess they’ve started fully materialize. I wanted to transfer that feeling I had, which was maybe something like a sense of powerlessness or dread, to the image making process. I wanted to lose control, having the resulting work border on ceasing to exist in any recognizable form.
—Peter Hoffman
We are intrigued by the process behind Chicago-based photographer Peter Hoffman’s Fox River Derivatives, a series commenting on consumption and clean water scarcity. Traveling by bike up and down the Fox River, Hoffman shot the photos on medium format film, after which he spray-coated the negatives and the flat surface beneath them with gasoline. He then threw a lit match onto the puddle of gasoline that the negative strip lie in, dousing them with water—fingers crossed—before the negative was too obliterated. It was a trial and error process, mostly error, he says. The result? Newly transformed babbling brooks that teeter on the edge of radioactive and ethereal. The Fox River lies between a densely populated suburban landscape and a more rural landscape in Chicago, a location that Hoffman describes as perfectly paradoxical.
Many of the trees we see in the city are dotted around in tubs like fig leaves, hiding the shame of bland re-development. Nature never looked less natural.—David Dunnico
A Tree Made of Real Wood is a project by UK-based photographer David Dunnico that examines the effects suburbia and development have on nature. Dunnico catalogs ‘urban trees’ throughout the city of Manchester with a witty and unique approach. The project features 36 photographs and is currently on view at Waterside Arts Centre in Manchester until April 6th.
Photographer Carolyn Marks Blackwood doesn’t have to search far for inspiration. She lives on a working farm in the Hudson Valley, her studio sitting on a 100 foot cliff just over the Hudson River. Nature’s best is at her fingertips, and she hasn’t taken it for granted—she has produced numerous bodies of work that capture the natural environment and its abstractions.
For the past five years, she has been earnestly exploring icicles. The beginning and end of the day have proved to be the best times for shooting them, when the light is rich and dramatic. Sunsets have also yielded beautiful results as the icicles pick up and refract the color and light. The more exaggerated colors on some of these icicles were acheived by shooting through a uv glass window and using a protective filter on the lens.
Blackwood is represented by Alan Klotz Gallery in New York City.
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Over the past several years, I have produced images, which center on familial themes, the role of the women within this institution, intimacy, autobiography and the complex relationship between mother and child. Antonia’s Garden deals with accounts of people living on the boundaries of emotional survival, and is at times about loss and the failure to connect and communicate.—Marisa Portolese
Antonia’s Garden is a quiet and contemplative series by Montreal-based photographer Marisa Portolese that gracefully explores familial identity, abandonment, displacement, and domestic life. Portolese’s narrative images start with autobiographical inspiration. She composes each scene and places family members in a natural or domestic setting, weaving together personal moments of reflection with still life and landscape. There are 35 photographs in the series as well as a video piece.
This is one of many radioactive mushrooms found and photographed by Takashi Homma in forests near Fukushima.
Kenneth Josephson’s vintage black and white work will be on display at Gitterman Gallery in New York from January 11 through March 16, 2013.
