Olaf Otto Becker's photographs at Huxley-Parlour Gallery.

Summer has finally arrived, it's wonderful to wake up every morning and a see a clear blue sky and the sun shining. The problem is when you step out into the outside world and you find out that trains are delayed or cancelled and it takes you twice as long to get across literally anywhere. You are amazed to discover that train companies use tracks that don't expand with the heat like they do in hot countries I guess they do this to save money as they would require less maintenance then expandable tracks. It seems the train service here only runs when the weather is perfect. If it is too cold or snowy or windy trains don't run properly and in the summer it is the same. I can't remember when was the last time I took a train  that was running on time, they are generally delayed. On the hottest  day of the year I found myself stuck on the train for two hours on a journey that usually should take half an hour. The driver first took us on a grand tour of the area, then the train stopped for nearly an hour in the heat just in front of the next station, we could see the platform but could not get off; the driver kept whispering something but we couldn't hear exactly what. If outside it was 28-30C inside it was 40C, we were gasping for air. I was really glad when we finally reached the station which was in a stage of complete chaos, I got out as quickly as possible. It is only when things are majorly disrupted that one understands how over-crowded London is. My friends told me that on the road it was no better with short journeys taking up to 3 hours long.

Photo by Olaf Otto Becker courtesy of Huxley-Parlour Gallery

The exhibition of Olaf Otto Becker's photographs at Huxley-Parlour Gallery near Piccadilly displays pictures taken during his many trips to the western coast of Greenland. He used a rubber raft to move between places while using a large format camera to take pictures of the glaciers, documenting the effects of global warming on the coastal landscape. He also took photographs of isolated, vividly painted wooden houses. His main preoccupation, however, was to document the ever changing landscape of the glaciers and icebergs. 

Photo by Olaf Otto Becker courtesy of Huxley-Parlour Gallery

The photographs show the vastness and magnitude of the glaciers and icebergs; they are calm, meditative pieces, and again they made me think of Tacita Dean's work,  in particular her mountain peaks which I recently viewed at the Royal Academy, all about the idea of the sublime. Each photograph has to been seen in the context of the others; they create a story, the icebergs turn into living sculptures, they are majestic, but still also scary due to their size.  Some of the  photographs have been taken from below the icebergs, looking up at them,  making them look even bigger;  this is a specific narrative in which the glaciers and icebergs are the central figures see pics above and below.

Photo by Olaf Otto Becker courtesy of Huxley-Parlour Gallery

He documents the evidence of over-population and the consequences this is having on the natural landscape, with global warming, and highlighting how the land and water are becoming scarce in many areas of the world. The photographs reminded me of the painter Caspar David Friedrich in their composition; he was a 19th century romantic landscape painter, whose contemplation of nature, and through it getting close to the sublime, produced pictures where the viewer is encouraged to experience the sublime potential of nature. His winter landscapes are solemn and still. 

Hochgebirge painting by Caspar David Friedrich courtesy of Pinterest

The Sea of Ice painting by Caspar David Friedrich courtesy of Pinterest

The colours of the icebergs are so clear and beautiful that they make them almost feel unreal, singling out pieces of the icebergs, showing them in one shot and making them feel more like relicts in the still water, imparting a fragility to them that suggests they will soon disappear. All these chunks of icebergs floating along that will soon no longer be there, where the wooden structure of the houses actually looks more solidly based then the glaciers themselves, this is scary! 

Photos by Olaf Otto Becker courtesy of Huxley-Parlour Gallery

The wooden houses with human belongings spread around them look like they don't belong there in the midst of the stillness of the landscape; this is quite poignant. The houses and floating icebergs are juxtaposed next to each other in the exhibition and they are all in white frames. The icebergs are like cut flowers they are living and dying at the same time.

This is an interesting and thought provoking exhibition about the consequences of global warming.

https://huxleyparlour.com/exhibitions/olaf-otto-becker/

Tacita Dean's exhibition, Landscape at The Royal Academy of Arts.

I enjoy working at night, it's the only time when it's quiet. That's what I felt while going to Tacita Dean's exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. Her work is grounded in nature, it slows you down, it removes you from the hectic life outside. In the first room there were her works on slabs of charcoal that make you think of the combination of light and air, but also of the material itself, and of earth. Her exhibition, Landscape at the Royal Academy, is part of a three part exhibition of her work. The  other two works are: Still Life at the National Gallery and Portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. I have not seen the other two exhibitions so I cannot comment on them. I will just focus on the one at the Royal Academy. The earth is present in it's physicality, both in the chalk drawings and also as found objects,  stones which are displayed in a cabinet. 

Antigone by Tacita Dean photo courtesy of the Guardian.

There is also a new 35 mm film which shows that she continues to be  a supporter of analogue film. This film is  entitled Antigone. It is presented  in split screen mode giving multiple view points,  it's nearly an hour long,  and the film is edited in the camera itself. We see a man walking in nature with a stick,  and close ups of  volcanic points in Yellowstone National Park see pic above; all is peaceful. We move from Wyoming to the town of Thebes in Illinois and to the first courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced. The movie and the work in the exhibition force you to slow down, they make you think of romanticism and the sublime. Dillane, the man with the stick, represents Oedipus in Greek mythology who killed his father and married his own mother, Jocasta. They will have four children together including Antigone his daughter. Oedipus became King of Thebes and after Jocasta killed herself he blinded himself and left his city. In the film he seems to walk across land with no aim while wearing a pair of glasses, despite the fact that he is blind. Meanwhile in the other section of the film Ann Curson discusses aspects of Greek mythology.

Antigone By Tacita Dean courtesy of Pinterest

I didn't paticularly identify with Dillane as Oedipus; rather than tragedy he actually made me think of the romantic walker who walks on his own as represented in Rousseau's the Reveries Of The Solitary Walker and also in Thoreau's Walden, this romanticised view of wondering or living in direct contact with nature. The close ups of the volcanic points force you to slow down as they are filmed in slow motion,  The images are meditative and grounded see pic above, they clash with the story of Oedipus & Antigone (which is also the name of Tacita Dean's elder sister). The film is not just about the story but also about light: dying light, the first glimmers of light, the eclipsed sun. Sometimes we are in several places at once, the two films overlap.

Montafon Letter by Tacita Dean photo courtesy of Pinterest

The first room is dominated by snowy mountain peaks, one of which takes over the main room due to its vastness. It made me think of Monet's work the Water Lilies which I saw in Paris a while back. Tacita Dean with the snowy mountains has made her own version, it is more minimalist and austere and was created using traditional chalk and blackboards; it is labour intensive work. Entitled Montafon Letter see pic above, the picture of the mountain peak refers to an avalanche that burried a village in the Austrian Alps in 1689. A second avalanche apparently burried the priest and a third avalanche uncovered him. Here is nature, the mountain, seen as sublime but also powerful and unpredictable, the essence of danger. It is composed of nine blackboards, joined together and more than seven metres wide. Hidden in its surface are  written notes and apparently these are about Brexit. The blackboards are not fixed with fixative as it is usually done when using chalk.

There is also a series of smaller chalk pencil drawings to accompany the main work. So we have earth, clouds, stones and light all together. The work is not based on one place but shows Tacita Dean's extensive travels from Cornwall to the USA. She observes nature, the changing weather, and her ongoing relationship with nature, places, and people she encountered. At the same time she looks at the past and our relationship with history, in particular the history of painting.

Work by Tacita Dean photo courtesy of Pinterest 

In the second room are lots of tiny leaves, inside a glass case; these come together to form a landscape see pic above. They were collected from 1972 which means she started collecting them when she was seven years old. In the exhibition there are also smaller slates and chalk drawings of clouds see pic below; chalk here is sprayed and there are inscriptions such as Where England?  These are materials mined from the land, possibly referencing the Victorian period of the Royal Academy, as in Victorian times they used slates with chalk in schools.

Work by Tacita Dean photo courtesy of Pinterest

Andreas Greiner exhibition in Berlin - Dittrich & Schlechtriem Gallery till the 23rd of June 2018.

I was invited to a talking event. When I arrived at the venue I barged into the room  in which I thought the event was taking place only to find that there was a film screening instead. I interrupted the film screening but instead of being kicked out by the organisers they asked me to stay and watch the film. The film director came forward with two other people on his team and said we need someone who is not part of the group to give an honest opinion about the film; if you see anything that doesn't look right, or sound right, please let us know, we are fed up with people telling us how wonderful our film is  and we just want an honest opinion before showing it to a wider audience. So I said ok as I was told the original event I was supposed to attend had been moved. I watched the entire film which actually was very good. At the end the film director and his team came forward and said: what did you think? I said it's very good, I enjoyed it but there is a scene towards the middle of the film that is not right, the sequence is not right. Great they said, Thanks for that, we will rectify it. They gave me some free tickets for another event, which was cool!

Photo By Andreas Greiner courtesy of Pinterest

Andreas Greiner is a Berlin based artist who works with bacteria, as for example in his work 'Roundabout' a gyroscope sculpture that when moved spins a cube containing bioluminescent bacteria to create a natural glow. The photographs entitled 'Entladung' are a series of explosions see pic above that took place in different parts of Berlin between 2012-2013; 'Flygate' depicts a machine that lets flies get out of the room through a motorised gate managed by a camera sensor. He takes photographs of chickens, making portraits of them, including radiography images of their skeletons, DNA sequencing from a liver sample, and portraits of living entities.

Photo by Andreas Greiner  courtesy of http://www.andreasgreiner.com

These are entitled Studie (Portrait) zur Singularitat des Tieres and include pictures that range from microscopic algae to a rooster called Heinrich see pic above. Chickens are ancient birds in terms of evolution; nowadays, sadly, one associates them with mass production and consumption and fattening of the birds for their commercial value. It took him some time to find someone who gave him a chicken that had died in an industrial plant due to its rapidly  acquired body weight which had led to the chicken's legs breaking. He cleaned the chicken, froze it, and took it to a laboratory for a precise CT scan, thereby producing a final 3D model. The dead chicken had turned into a digital archive.

The live element of the exhibition performs, it is about time and space and the process of living. The works defy traditional sculpture, movement is an intrinsic part of them showing the abnormal life span of the industrial chicken. He has a keen interest in the microscopic world; he grows his own bioluminescent algae for use in his work see pic below. We use algae in food, in gardening. He is also trying to show  organisms as individuals, seen as distinctive subjects and not just as what they bring in terms of consumption for humans.

Photo by Andreas Greiner courtesy of Pinterest

The portrait series highlights the unseen, making visible something that is usually overlooked and taken for granted. A close bond between humans and one of the oldest living beings on the planet is suggested. His work requires specialised technology and working at close contact with scientists and different institutions. He utilises scientific methods combined with aesthetic vision. Examples of this  are his canvases that include bacteria cultures see pic below which are left to develop under natural processes, creating living artworks, which are open to different futures including unanticipated accidents.

Photo by Andreas Greiner courtesy of Pinterest.

He seeks to see beauty in the unexpected, in the unnoticed everyday, and his works make you think about the relationship between humans and other lifeforms on the planet; what are the boundaries between man & other living creatures? The human footprint is everywhere and is the overpowering creative force on the planet, impacting on other living creatures. Humans are now recreating nature and taking over from natural processes. He said in an interview: My view is rather characterised by my generation's estrangement from nature,  the dissolving border that man is creating between technology and nature.

In the exhibition at Dittrich & Schelechtriem entitled Hybrid Matter, this specific work looks at how humans manipulate and reconstruct nature through genetic engineering while speculating on the future of mankind's own genetic code. What is the essence of 'nature' in an age of digitalisation and synthetic biology? Nature has been modified by man - an example is genetically modified crops this showing human manipulation of nature for the benefit of humans.

Photo by Andreas Greiner courtesy of Dittrich -Schlechtriem Gallery.

The first thing one sees in the exhibiton is Replicating Seed which shows cell division. This is followed by Edit Yourself KIT. Also in the main room is: The Molecular Ordering of Computational Plants created in collaboration with Tyler Friedman, who worked on the music and text.

Along the walls are a new series of photographs showing magnified microscopic cellular clusters, cancer tumour cells, and syntethic bacteria created by the Craig Venter Institute. As with the pictures of chickens these are considered to be portraits in their own right.
http://www.dittrich-schlechtriem.com/exhibitions/hybrid-matter/

Karine Maussiere's polaroids exhibition till 5th June at Galleria Gallerati, Rome + Francis Alys on walking.

In this exhibition there is a selection of Karine Maussiere's polaroids at Galleria Gallerati in Rome. These are minimalist, the individual pictures combine to produce a sense of the infinite. Her working practice is about walking so as to absorb the landscape around her.

Photo by Karine Maussiere courtesy of  http://www.karinemaussiere.com/

The polaroids, which are small and pale, give you a sense of the calm and sublime. In the exhibition in Rome at Galleria Gallerati titled Hyberborees, Water, and Mountains, Flowers the horizon is seen as an open space, the surrounding landscape to be taken in, nature as sublime, intangibly calm. Sometimes nature envelops, sometimes - in the case of the mountain peaks - it makes you giddy due to their height.

Photo by Karine Maussiere courtesy of  http://www.karinemaussiere.com/

Photography here is used as detractive, in a zen way to actually accentuate the beauty of the landscape. She combines this with the walking to create gaps between the images. These gaps represent a fraction of displacement. The images are then reassembled to give a high of the subliminal landscape. The images together make you think of a log book, a diary of her journey across the landscape, creating a story, a narrative, through reassembled images. Taking a photograph as an act of truth but then reassembling the images makes you think  of the relation between memory and fiction.

Photo by Karine Maussiere courtesy of  http://www.karinemaussiere.com/

In the walk Le Temps en Friches, part of her residency in Instres in 2013, where she criss-crossed the GR2013 on the Western territory of the sea of Berre, she observes the changes taking place in this territory. This area experienced its economy based on traditional activities such as managing the salt marshes, and soda plants; this has been replaced over time by an industrial economy.

Photo by Karine Maussiere courtesy of  http://www.karinemaussiere.com/

Through her polaroids she observes the buildings left behind. With any one polaroid she does not show the whole building but selects a section of the building and combines the polaroids together to form one picture. She is interested in architectural heritage. Her walks are a journey of discovery. She uses the small format of Instant Mini and enjoys the instantaneous process of the polaroid which she feels accentuates the ghostly appearance of the buildings she encounters. The images, put together and carefully framed, create a process which reinforces the presentation of the unsympathetic impact on the landscape of the derelict buildings, which in fact are creating a wasteland. The detritus of civilisation.

Photo by Karine Maussiere courtesy of  http://www.karinemaussiere.com/

We might compare this with the work of Francis Alys (as both artists use walking in their practice), a conceptual Belgian artist, where he walked the streets of London, a busy urban environment, and took pictures showing a collection of neighbourhoods and a personal view of the city. His walks are transformational; the alien surroundings are turned into a space tailored to human dimensions, he maps the city through his walks. A walk is a complete action in itself and his walk changes the space. He is influenced by the Flaneurs and the Situationist and their free flowing approach. He uses photography to document the ephemeral. First the performance, then the photograph, a document that will continue the initial work inside the gallery, basically a photographic documentation of the original action. Like for example in Los Zapatos Magneticos 1994 see pic. below where he was walking the streets of  Mexico City with magnetic shoes and collecting coins along the way, the shoes represented recycling and they are a reflection on consumerism, the attraction of consumerism.

Francis Alys photo courtesy of Pinterest

Or for example his other work titled Paradox of Praxis 1 1997 see pic. below. In the photographs he is seen rolling a block of ice along the street for 6 or 7 hours till it melts, mimicking the work of the labourers in the city who spend most of their time pulling and pushing carts. The final result in both cases is the same, nothing to show for it because the ice has disappeared. Walking in this sense is a form of resistance as in our contemporary society all our technology and life is based on speed. Walking is immediate and anybody can do it,  there is nothing consumerist about it.

Francis Alys courtesy of Pinterest

He is a story teller. In other photographs you see him from afar or from behind. Another time he stood still in the middle of a square until a crowd formed around him,  people dash through the cityscape not really noticing their surroundings, but some of them stopped and engaged with him, the still figure in the middle of the square, and then he left. This shows that the engagement to other people in his work is important. His work is not fixed in one place, he has walked through several cities including London, Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Jerusalem and Copenhagen. He enacted the walks in different parts of London with a 5 year project for Artangel in 2005 observing the everyday, the inhabitants' daily rituals. The work came under the title of 7 Walks,  where he observed and engaged in everyday life. His action creates something from nothing. Performing his own futility and insignificance he creates a story. In one we see a photograph of him playing with a drumstick on the railings on a West London House see pic. below. another critique on the capitalist wealthy society obsessed with speed and achievement.

Francys Alys photo courtesy of Pinterest

There is organisation in this work unlike the Flanuers walks. He said to have been overwhelmed by the immensity of the city of London, the combination of old traditional ceremonies, like the changing of the guards, with technology and modern buildings, titled Guards 2004-2005 see pic. below. He uses a counter productive approach for example that of tapping the drumstick against the railing. He observed the increasing homogenisation of London and positioned himself as an actor, creating scenarios. See website: francisalys.com

Photo by Francis Alys courtesy of Pinterest

Into the Woods: Trees in Photography at the V&A, recommended.

In this free exhibition at the V&A, trees are being presented by different photographers from different periods. The pictures are mostly black and white photographs, but there are also some colour photographs by other well known photographers. In the older photographs the trees are pictured for their botanical interest; in the more recent ones it is their poetic symbolism that catches the eye & the mind.

Photo by Ansel Adams courtesy of Pinterest

In this blog I am not able to write about each individual photographer due to the wide variety of work on display. I will be highlighting some works only. The exhibition features both classic and contemporary images and depicts our relationship with trees over the years; it also highlights the development of photography during this time. Trees are shown as symbolic, as abstract, destined for destruction, for poetry; each photograph is individual, has an individual narrative. It also makes us think about the roles that trees play for us, for example absorbing pollution and cleansing our air, contributing to our  wellbeing.  We should not take them for granted. In the exhibition there are famous photographers such as Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Agnes Warburg. There are also examples of manipulated photographs for example the 1839 photograph  by Johann Carl Enslen and recent works by Tokihiro Sato, titled ‘In the Forests of the Hakkoda Mountains’ see pic below. Trees offer an abundance of possibilities, their cycles changing with the seasons,  some wild, some cultivated. The pictures are often lyrical.

Photo by Tokihiro Sato courtesy of Pinterest

One work that stood out for me was the photograph by Tal Shoshat called ‘Rimon (pomegranate) Afarsimon 2011’ see pic. below, a tree ripe with fruits standing in front of a black background lit artificially. It isolates the tree from the landscape and presents it as a monument. It is a symbol of fertility and of endurance. The fruits are pomegranates, at their peak of their growing cycle. This made me think of an artificial garden of Eden, natural and fabricated at the same time,
not to be encountered in real life.

Photo by Tal Shoshat, courtesy of Pinterest

Tal Shoshat cleans the branches and leaves before shooting the photos and takes photographs of trees that grow in Israel. I found the work theatrical, different from all the other photos in the exhibition. It is one of the few colour photographs in the exhibition. Instead of taking a portrait of a person Shoshat takes one of a tree. I found it interesting that Tal Shoshat titled it Afarsimon

which in the Talmud & Midrash means balsam. The ancient Jewish community of Ein Gedi was cultivating it. It was considered to be very precious and used as an oil, the oil of persimmon. Persimmons are very rich  fruits cultivated in large numbers in Israel, the fruit is seen as a  symbol of fertility in many cultures.
Tal Shoshat’s photographs are about the contrast between reality and artifice, they question the honesty of photography as a documentary medium.

Photo by Robert Adams, courtesy of Pinterest

Another photograph I focused on was one completely different in meaning and in nature. This was by Robert Adams, titled ‘On Signal Hill Overlooking Long Beach California 1983’. This is in gelatin silver print on paper. Robert Adams photographic interest is in the connection between landscape & humans, and the impact that humans have had on the American landscape. The photograph in question is black and white. The trees are an image of nature as a whole. Taken on the outskirts of suburbia, they feel lost, fragile, thin, battered, and a reminder of what’s left of nature. The cityscape is suffocated by smog. It’s a powerful photograph showing the results of human activity on the environment. This is in contrast to the 19th century photographs of the American West,  for example by Timothy O’ Sullivan, which showed the American landscape as huge untouched spaces and still wild see pic below. 

Photo by Timothy O'Sullivan courtesy of Pinterest

Robert Adams instead is concerned with the destruction of nature. He transforms the pictures of the trees into a dying presence and rejects the conventions of beauty of the landscape of the 19th century photographers. The trees shown here appear exhausted by the interference of humans and their constant meddling with nature. His photographs are a living document of what is left of the natural world. It is an understated, alluding photograph that opens up a bigger narrative. He is a keen walker, like I am. Some of his greatest photographs have come out of his walking expeditions. Through his photography he depicts the everyday in life and the changes that nature is going through. In his series ‘Turning Back 1990-2003’see pic below, he was focusing on the destruction of the tall trees of the American North West where they used clearcutting despite opposition, and have substantially reduced the original forest. His work records the changes by man on the landscape and I think he grieves about the losses of trees.

Photo by Robert Adams courtesy of Pinterest

I also enjoyed seeing the photograph by Joseph Sudek titled ‘The Window of My Studio 1944-1954’ see pics below; he was also called the Poet of Prague. His photographs are evocative and poetic, and he took many shots from his studio. In this specific photograph he points at the communion between outside and inside, it’s a reflection on the two coming together, the exterior world and the interior world, the relationship between the real world and the mysterious.

Photo by Joseph Sudek courtesy of Pinterest

They are intimate photographs taken in his studio. He was fascinated with light and was a master at pigment printing and thus was able to create very atmospheric photographs, which make the viewer reflect. They are gentle. Few people appear in his pictures; he was considered to be shy and he only had one arm. Despite this he carried his own cameras and was a resilient character. He also took photographs of the wooden landscape in Bohemia. They remind me of romanticism, a period I have been looking to with my own work. He used the camera to explore Prague, and the world around him. Even when the city was ravaged by war he kept focusing on the everyday beauty of life. He used to take walks circling around the town. The resulting photographs came under the series titled ‘Prague Panoramic’ see pic. below.

Photo by Joseph Sudek courtesy of Pinterest

His photographs are intimate and haunting. He was badly injured during World War I.  I always admired his resilience and the way he pushed forward with photography in challenging times.  Sometimes he adjusted the camera using his teeth. I think he created his own style of romanticism. He creates a specific atmosphere in his photographs of his garden and his trees.  He kept taking pictures even when the Nazis were taking over Czechoslovakia, showing sad, melancholic photos of the city under occupation. His studio turned into a hub for other artists. He made use of a view camera which resulted in slow photography,  waiting for a long time before taking the image.

Photo by Jerry Uelsmann courtesy of Pinterest

Finally I liked the image by Jerry Uelsmann called ‘Untitled 1969’ see pic above.

He is interested in the surreal in photography, he creates fantasy scenes incorporating trees. He created this amazing photograph before the use of digital technology by using multiple negatives. We see a tree floating in air above the ground over a lake. It speaks to the viewer’s imagination calling him/her to complete the image. There is no one way of reading it. It takes a lot of skill & hard work to produce his photographs. He loves working in the darkroom. He is not restricted to one single negative.  His work requires skilled assemblage. The image is black and white, it’s a dreamscape with an open psychological meaning; he creates an alternate reality. His picture goes beyond actual landscape, it’s more a work of imagination and prompts the viewer to tap into the unconscious see pics below, it’s an emotional work away from the conceptual.

Photos by Jerry Uelsmann courtesy of Pinterest

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.

Social Media.

The shooting at YouTube was really shocking. It was reported in the news that the shooter spent her whole time online, it sounds like her whole identity was based on her online activity and when  YouTube pulled the plug by filtering her content her identity collapsed, imploded. She was fixated by projecting her persona through YouTube and felt a sense of grievance which could have also occurred through non digital interactions.

Social media can be very addictive; basically they try to keep you on their sites as long as possible to make money. We are constantly checking for updates, interrupting the regular flow of things in the real world; it is the same with videos, you have to constantly upload videos to remain relevant. Nowadays in London you see a lot of people staring at their smart phones while walking, on transport, inside cafes, people are no longer talking or looking at each other, they have their noses peeled onto their screen, oblivious to the surrounding world; the real world is just another interruption from ones checking ones own screen. The irony is the more we seek to connect to others in the virtual world through social media the more we become disconnected from the real world. Isn't social media more ephemeral than real friends in the real world? There have been several studies done on this, where participants were found to feel more isolated after spending more than two hours on social media. Also more importantly people that spend longer times online were found to be less tolerant, less accepting of other people in the real world.

The fact is that interactions online can be of the same nature over and over again and you can ensure that your conversations are brief, but when you go back in the real world interactions may not be quite so easily managed. So being online for very long periods of time might leave you ill equipped to deal with problems in the real world. On the other hand, for some people who are house-bound social media can be an important life line where they can meet new people. 

Also the wanting to be constantly connected, worrying that you might not be answering messages, makes people anxious and leaves them unable to spend quiet time with themselves without feeling guilty or uncomfortable, with their minds somewhere else. We can show to the world a better side of ourselves online, for example with a wide ranging selection of filters on Instagram. Then there is the aspect of monetization; some people spend a lot of time online selling stuff on ebay, uploading videos to YouTube, Twitter or Instagram but how much money are users of these sites making? Some are doing very well but others are not, and they are just wasting time a bit like TV binging. The social media companies are making money with advertisements and people's data. Some people have a lot of followers and make an income but others don't make money at all. If one for example spends three hours each day on social media but one doesn't  make any money wouldn't they be better off just having a minimum wage normal job?

Losing followers and money can produce a negative psychological effect, especially to someone with a fragile identity with no real job who spends most of their time online on their own and whose identity revolves around this activity. This can never be an excuse for going around shooting people. I felt terrible for the poor people at YouTube, what a terrifying experience! And then there is the issue of censorship and where it crosses the line from social interest to social control. 

Social media can also be positive, helping people for example to get connected in a positive way. In one particular case a man from Yemen was able to escape war and death thanks to social media.

On the other hand some people, when their ratings go down do dangerous things, for example posting crazy things online to send their ratings back up again. If someone shutdown social media all of a sudden for whatever reason would people have a nervous breakdown or get their lives back? Some people find Facebook really useful in terms of getting info on events that are happening but are worried about the data breach. I do enjoy using YouTube and I have never had any problems with it. 

Also with other social media sites, you can get to meet people you wouldn't normally meet but it's not good to spend excessive amounts of time on it. But we go back to the addiction element of them; whilst you might enjoy interacting with others online, being connected, or having the impression of being connected, the lack of real friendships can bring problems in the real world. Are we really able to switch ourselves off from them? Also there may be a shortage of well paid, real jobs in the world and that's why a lot of people go online in the hope of promoting themselves, to make money. Some people have the false illusion that online you can become a star, they dream of becoming famous like on the TV show Britain's Got Talent. I mean some vloggers on YouTube do very well, but it is a highly competitive global environment, the bottom line is social media sites are a business with a global reach and when they expand too much they still have to deal with growth problems and other issues like any other business.

Some of this is what I have been addressing in my current work which is about isolation and anomie, a sense of disassociation from society. In an age where people are pushed to be constantly connected through digital media where is this leading us? If on one level we are using social media as a distraction from the things that give our life real meaning on another level social media is changing how we relate to each other. My work aims to highlight this dichotomy.

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