A recent exhibition review I did for Owin Hayes, where he set up an online artistes walkthrough of his photographic practise which explores the forgotten and unknown environments.
image from Terra Incognita online exhibition
This body of work studies the outdoors, the photographer finding themselves in places that aren’t usually explored and have been hidden away, being found again with the aim of finding beauty and danger in this forgotten land. The artist statement does a great job of tying the images together, giving each photograph a meaning and a link within the project. the majority of the images consist of trees, leaves and ponds, the eerie and dark imagery do a good job reflecting on the concept of an unknown location, the lack of colour and energy show a sense of loss of knowledge and identity in the world. I can see that it is only natural light that you have used which I think works well for this project as you are working with nature and don’t want extra lighting to affect this link in your work. You should try experimenting with models or even animals such as wildlife or pets in your work, this could expand on the naturistic look in your project. The photograph shown is the one that stood out most for me as I didn’t have a full understanding of what it is that I was looking at; although I can see the floor, leaves and grass, I can’t understand what I am visually looking at, this as well as the dark setting and eerie emotion I get from this, it expresses the idea of this location that has been photographed is unknown and forgotten about, making the audience feel as confused as the photographer would be as they were taking the shot. Other images such as the dead leaves clinging onto the tree show a good representation of age and decay, the untreated nature that is dying and clinging to life is a powerful image that could be thought of as the memory of the area being forgotten. Another variable that links all of these images together is the escapism that runs throughout the project. the exhibition is in such a big open space, this is how the photographer would feel when shooting his images, this would also reflect on the viewers emotions, not feeling trapped but feeling free and with nature. To progress in this project, I would start to look towards shooting more open spaces to reflect on this; start to shoot big open landscapes and move away from small spaces as this can give an impression of feeling trapped and cause a sense of nervousness and uncomforting. Look at work by photographer Per Bak Jensen who explores outdoor imagery such as this.
Check out the Artsteps online exhibition here: https://www.artsteps.com/view/60589632f6ec627576012c8c
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