[Spring/Summer 2016]
There are places where nature’s presence is more intensely felt, where the question of the city’s interrelations with its natural environment emerges more spontaneously. Certain circumstances are also conducive to raising such reflections – among them, sense of unfamiliarity experienced during a stay abroad, obvious deterioration in the equilibrium or beauty of a place, and pressure exerted for appropriation of a public site for private purposes.
Jessica Auer, January
The product of a residency in a small Icelandic town, January portrays a unique experience of winter light in a mountainous environment. We are plunged into perception: apprehending what photography can capture of the light of a place cloaked in the shadow of mountains and the cold of winter.
With an essay by James D. Campbell
Geneviève Chevalier, Mon boisé, phase II
This project features two contradictory views of an urban forest that is suddenly being targeted by a real estate development project. It contrasts the images of nature that is preserved or arranged for the public good against documents showing the appropriation of such natural sites for private purposes.
With an essay by John K. Grande
Isabelle Hayeur, Desert Shores (L’Amérique perdue)
This series of seventy images forms a desolate portrait of a small California area, Salton Sea, which was once a famous vacation spot and is now deserted, sandy, arid. With their raw backlighting and grey hues, the images are hard and unvarnished. Abandoned houses, shattered windows, angry graffiti, and sand everywhere…
With an essay by Stephen Horne