Exhibition of Mark Ruwedel's photos at Tate Modern, Boiler House level 2 West.

Photo by Mirta Imperatori of Mark Ruwedel's work.

Late on Friday I decided to wander around Tate Modern to view the exhibition by Mark Ruwedel see pic. above; it was late so there was hardly anybody around which was great. I was able to spend more time focusing on the work without getting disturbed. Mark Ruwedel takes photographs of the North American landscape, presenting the human interaction with the landscape and what is left behind by human activity. The photographs are shown in sequence, they are small and are surrounded by a white frame. They force you to look in and slow down. I didn't feel the lighting in the room was correct; if you didn't pay attention, then at a distance the pictures tend to blend into themselves, with the detail getting lost see pic below.

Photo by Mirta Imperatori of Mark Ruwedel's work

I would have liked to see a different type of lighting, showing more detail of the photographs.

The photographs are ghostly views of flatlands, lines of tracks barely visible stretching into the distance, cutting through rocks. They are beautiful photographs taken with care, mid frontal shots, classical in terms of proportions and presented in an ordered way. They reminded me of Robert Adams.

Photo by Mark Ruwedel courtesy of Pinterest

I particularly liked the selection of empty houses left abandoned in the desert see pic above; they look like they are in the middle of nowhere but they are actually not far from LA. He is interested in the human trace, what is left behind after human activity  and the way the space has been used. He is questioning the notion of  'pure nature' showing that it's been degraded by human activity to the point where original nature no longer exists and the landscape has become an historical archive of human activity. He takes photos over and over again of the same subject using old fashioned methods: an analogue camera, old fashioned paper and traditional darkrooms methods.

Photo by Mark Ruwedel courtesy of Pinterest

He is attracted to neglected spaces. The houses in his photos are abandoned homes see pic. above, showing the residual traces of the human presence,  some of the houses have been so neglected that they are just disappearing back into the desert landscape. This prompts thoughts of transitoriness of human life with migration from one place to another. So a house that used to be someone's cherished home is no longer inhabited and degrades into nothing, it gives out a feeling of emptiness. The photographs share a sense of vulnerability and precariousness; according to Ruwedel they are tragic as they allude to a harsh environment.

Photo by Mark Ruwedel courtesy of Pinterest

Next to the above pictures there is also a series of photographs documenting areas in the Western United States, again photos of the desolate vast landscapes, named after hell or the devil by explorers and settlers, evoking the harsh environment, then unpopulated, now an historical archive of human presence see pic. above.

I was particularly interested also in his project called 'Following Nigel' where he literally followed long distance hiker Nigel Naab walking across Los Angeles.  He was following his own route across as many neighbourhoods as possible, both actual districts but also economic, social divides. Mark Ruwedel photographed what he found interesting along the way; he explored the different areas from the point of view of someone on foot, focusing on the signs of human movement. This particular work made me think of Vito Acconci & his work: 'Following Piece (October 3-25 1969)' where he picked a person at random & follow them until they entered a car, a building or a cinema.

Photo by Mark Ruwedel courtesy of Pinterest 

Most of the photographs in the exhibition are gelatin silver prints on paper, they are quite faint, giving a ghostly pallor.  There is also a series of photos of the edges of dried up lakes in the Californian desert, lakes formed thousands of years ago by melting glaciers see pic. above.
This is very topical because the disappearance of the lakes coincided with the arrival of humans. The photos invite us to think about the relationship between humans and landscape and the degradation that often follows human arrival. There is a further series of photos he took at the Wendover Air Force Base in Utah; this is where the pilots of the Enola Gay trained for the bombing of Hiroshima. The crafters shown in the photos are more recent.

I noticed towards the end of the exhibition a series of photos in homage to pop artist Ed Ruscha. Ruwedel took photos of fifteen apartments shown in Ruscha's series; they present a study on the changes of the urban landscape of Los Angeles.