A range of artists have experimented with photographing landscapes in ways that make visible this entanglement, while purposefully allowing traces of technological mediation to add depth to their work. 3 Matthew Brandt’s project, Lakes and Reservoirs , shifts and warps photographs by submerging the images in water collected from the actual site. There is no sole signatory of the event, the photograph decays in response to its specific image density and the properties of the water in which it is immersed. Broken Spectre by Richard Mosse subverts technologies such as military-grade thermal imaging cameras to document the destruction of the Amazon basin and the displacement of Indigenous peoples at microscopic, human and colossal scales. Benoît Paillé’s The Kitsch Destruction of Our World uses exaggerated lighting and theatrical compositions to amplify the surreal absurdity of normalising ecological injury. Stan Brackhage’s analogue film, Garden of Earthly Delights , conveys a day through the cycle of light, where the crunch of petals, grasses and leaves is almost audible as a visual poem flickers on screen. The work evokes a living, sensory experience while resisting static, conventional identification.
Inspired by such scholars, artists and activists, my current project aims to centre the entangling of people, ruderal plants, soils and other dynamics of the terrain vague , allowing the material reality of the site to co-create a visual language. Spontaneously double-exposing analogue images mirrors the dynamic energy and multiple public uses of the site. A second series follows only after the first is complete, often occurring during an entirely new season, and embraces spontaneity with no predetermined pairing. Through a limited set of frames, the process asks the photographer (me) to slow down and produce less, as I also carefully look for ruderal plants to create vinegars and teas for souping, a method where film rolls are soaked with materials found on the site itself.
all images Ann-Catherine Lemonde
3 Brandt, Lakes and Reservoirs , https://matthewbrandt. com/lakesandreservoirs Mosse, Broken Spectre , https://www.richardmosse.com Paillé, The Kitsch Destruction of Our World , https://gbuffer. myportfolio.com/the-kitsch-destruction-of-our- world Brakhage, T he Garden of Earthly Delights , https://vimeo. com/244464831
13 on site review 47 :: standing still
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator