ARTDOC Artdoc Magazine #2 | 2020

Japanese Garden

Sebastião Salgado Naohiro Ninomiya Wendi Schneider Tribute to the earth Whisperings of nature Trees of transcendence Artdoc Photo Magazine #2 | 2020 ARTDOC Content

Portfolio

Wendi Schneider 6. Trees of grace and transcendence © Dillon Marsh | 62.15 cubic meters Christine Simpson 25. Earth Matters, more than ever Sebastião Salgado 58. Tribute to the earth Naohiro Ninomiya 70. Whisperings of nature © Naohiro Ninomiya | Taki Dillon Marsh 88. The visualization of the volume of melting ice

Photo Culture

The as Metaphor 36. Does a photograph show the reality? Or does it show the emotions the photographer wants to show? © Wendi Schneider | Cypress, 2017 Inspiration Ali Shokri 18. Passion for trees Annette Wijdeveld 50. Dialogue with Silence Jennifer Graham 82. Impermanence, Transience and Mutability

Photo Books 42.

Japanese Garden 44. Highlights of Artdoc Photo Exhibition

© Christine Simpson | Disenchantment

2 © Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas Images ARTDOC From the Editors

Dear Reader,

In this issue, we bring you a mix of nature and philosophical writing. Trees are silent protagonists in the work of “Does a photograph Wendi Schneider. In an intuitive way, the American photographer creates visual poetry with images of branches and trees. In a similar but different way, Iranian photographer Ali Shokri depicts show reality? Or the serene beauty of trees as mirrors of humanity. And Christine Simpson surprises us with a composite of diverse natural elements above and under the water, showing the lush and vulnerable world of plants, birds and fishes. does it reveal the In our group exhibition Japanese Garden, we bring you a wide variety of photographers from all over the world around the theme of reflection and tranquillity of nature. emotions the Who does not know the epic project Genesis of Sebastião Salgado, in which he photographed untouched nature around the globe? We show you some photos of his book and exhibition Genesis that attracted more visitors than the historical Family of Man. photographer You might say that all these photographers show the real world in a transparent way, but in fact, most of the have a metaphorical meaning. Does a photograph show reality? Or does it reveal the emotions the photographer intends to show? intends to show? In an in-depth article, we bring you the theory of the photograph - The Artdoc Team as a metaphor—a good read when you want to deploy your own photography in a metaphorical way.

- The Artdoc Team

Editor’s Note 4 © Wendi Schneider | Crescent and Crow, 2018 ARTDOC

Trees of grace and transcendence

Wendi Schneider

Trees are silent protagonists in the work of Wendi Schneider, which is rooted in the serenity she finds in the sinuous elegance of organic forms. She shares moments of respite in beauty as an antidote to the unease in the world in which we live. “If I can touch someone else with my work, I’m deeply moved and grateful. I hope that viewers will appreciate the beauty and embrace the need to care for our endangered planet.”

Portfolio 6 ARTDOC

The series States of Grace of Wendi longing for freedom, peace, love, and Schneider, an American photographer harmony amidst the chaos of the world. residing in Denver, evolved organically. This synthesis of form and content, paired “I photograph what I’m drawn to and strive with poetry and music, allows the viewer to to immortalize the grace I find there, to consider the commonalities in our collective make the intangible tangible, and to instill consciousness. We all live under the same my images with the spirituality felt at the moon.” moment of capture. These moments are my states of grace.” Visual poetry The series is extensive and is informed by Wendi Schneider seeks to create visual nearly 40 years of photographic image- poetry through fleeting moments of making. Her work originates from her vanishing beauty. “I’m driven by a search youth, growing up in a family of artists for grace and the elusive glow of creative in the lush, plush South. Schneider: “As a flow that exists when the awareness of child who grew up in the shadows of the time disappears. I relish the focus to Holocaust, the murders of the Kennedys, discover how best to convey the essence Martin Luther King, and countless others of the ephemeral that elicits a quickened in our systemic racism and antisemitism, I heartbeat. It’s that magical moment when embraced the ideology of different strokes the senses align. It’s calming and exciting, for different folks.” centring and enchanting, and for me, a spiritual experience. I feel that I’m given a Moon gift of a moment which I am tasked with Within States of Grace are images that can preserving.” be curated by subject, theme, or treatment. Schneider shares moments of respite in For her Colorado Month of Photography beauty as an antidote to the unease in the exhibition in Boulder in 2019, Schneider world in which we live. “I illuminate the chose the title Evenings with the Moon. “In necessity of recognizing and preserving our this selection of images, I contemplate the disappearing natural world. I make work power of universal experiences to unify and for myself because I’m compelled to. If I can find transcendence, engaging the moon as make my work, I am fulfilled. If I can touch muse. Printed on vellum or kozo and gilded someone else with my work, I’m deeply with precious metals, the subjects echo the moved and grateful. I hope that viewers will luminosity of their celestial inspiration. My appreciate the beauty and embrace the need © Wendi Schneider | The Cry of the Lonely Crow, 2019 images of the night draw on the metaphor to care for our endangered planet.” of darkness and light to express our shared

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© Wendi Schneider | Cypress, 2017

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Part of life booklets from the Metropolitan Museum of Many of her works depict trees in various Art. I later studied art history, the decorative forms, as well as birds and owls. The photo- arts and painting at Stephens College in works are not merely descriptions but Columbia, MO, before transferring to serve mainly as memories and metaphors. Newcomb College in New Orleans to Schneider about her youth: “When I was concentrate on painting. I think art history, a child, my neighbours had a small farm and the design and iconic fashion magazines behind our home. At night I would listen to of the ‘70s and ‘80s helped cement my sense the great horned owls calling to each other. of composition or perhaps I was born that It was magical and soothing. Near the farm, way.” in the far corner of our back yard, I sought Artists and photographers that inspire her solace and solitude beneath the undulating are various. “Many artists have played a limbs of a weeping willow tree, trying to role in my development. Edward Steichen, figure out how I fit into this world. I feel we Robert Demachy, Frank Eugene, Gertrude are forever intertwined with these delicacies Kasebier, and other pictorialists, Sarah in nature, as we too are part of life on earth. Moon, but also James Abbott McNeill These symbols of nature inspire dreams and Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Claude represent wisdom and freedom.” Monet, Gustav Klimt, Lucien Levy Dhurmer and other Symbolist, Tonalist and Art history Impressionist painters.” Seeing her artistic photographs, it is not Her art background does not impose a rigid surprising that Schneider has a background copy of a historical style. “I photograph in painting and art history. “Both my intuitively – what I feel, as much as mother and grandmother painted when I what I see. Informed by a background in was young, and I have paintings by them painting and art history, my images are and by my great-grandmother in our home. layered digitally with colour and texture to I spent most of my childhood outdoors or manipulate the boundaries between the real drawing and painting and hours in the attic and imagined and are often altered within with a collection of my mother’s art history the edition, honouring the variations.”

“I photograph intuitively – what I feel, as much as what I see.

© Wendi Schneider | Locust, 2016 12 “ ARTDOC

Textured paper position and ambient light transition. Schneider does not compromise in her My process infuses the artist’s hand and digital printing technique, choosing suffuses the treasured subjects with the the very fragile Japanese natural Kozo implied spiritually and sanctity of the paper, which is also known as Mulberry precious metal, echoing the spiritual paper. “My artwork Crescent & Crow was experience of the process of creating the layered digitally on my iPad and then image.” brought into Photoshop. I had been Some images, like Cypress and The working with vellum since 2012 and Wisdom of Trees, seem to have a natural had played with encaustic wax on Kozo tone and other images like Crescent in 2015. In 2018 I began experimenting Moon, are blue. Why did she print her with the Kozo with gilding. The surfaces photographs in different colours? “I’m are quite different - the vellum is more interested in how something smooth and presents as a silken sheen feels than appears. Sometimes the and smooth finish when gilded; the capture does not call for a different Kozo is more textured and sparkles interpretation. Sometimes it does. with luminosity. After the images are Colour evokes emotional responses in digitally on translucent vellum or Kozo, me and hopefully for the viewer. We all I apply white gold, moon gold, silver or bring our personal histories into each 24k gold leaf behind the image, creating emotional response.” a luminosity that varies as the viewer’s

About a family of artists, later earning an AA in Art History Wendi Schneider is a Denver-based visual artist from Stephens College and a BA in Painting from widely known for her ongoing series of hand- Newcomb College at Tulane University. Her interest in gilded photographs, States of Grace –– illuminated photography germinated in the early 1980s with the impressions of grace in the natural world. Drawn use of a to reference models for oil paintings. to the serenity she finds in the sinuous elegance of Mesmerized by the possibilities of the photographic organic forms, she embraces photography to preserve art form and the alchemy of the , yet missing vanishing moments of beauty in our vulnerable the sensuousness of oils, Schneider began to layer environment. Schneider has perfected a gilding oils on photographs to manipulate the boundaries process in which her images seemingly dance on the between the real and the imagined. This process laid paper’s surface amidst reflections of light on precious the groundwork for the unique layering and gilding that metals, creating a synthesis of technique and subject. would later become the foundation of States of Grace. Born in Memphis, TN in 1955, Schneider grew up in

© Wendi Schneider | The Wisdom of Trees, 2019 14 © Wendi Schneider | Little Black Angel, 2019 ARTDOC

“If I can touch someone else with my work, I’m deeply moved and grateful. I hope that viewers will appreciate the beauty and embrace the need to care for our endangered planet.

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Passion for trees

Ali Shokri

© Ali Shokri | Passion of Trees

Inspiration 18 ARTDOC

To me, each tree, like a human being, the trees, the lungs of the earth? As has a tale to tell. When a tree dies, a an artist, I believe that art can remind whole story is interrupted, and destiny us of this. And as an artist, I feel the is altered for the worse. I feel as if the responsibility to show the lungs of the “ trees, bundled at the back of trucks, earth. are cursing us with their broken hands, I know, I can’t save our trees with my wounded faces, and severed roots. photographs. I can’t return Nature Perhaps this is how we are led towards to her imperious verdure. Yet, I try to damnation, Little by little stripped of our capture the lonesomeness, and exile of humanity when man’s abounding foliage the trees and encourage the viewers to moistened with the dew’ is reduced to look at nature with a different gaze, to ash and smoke. remember that in the absence of trees Nature is a mirror to show us how the birds are homeless and there’s no air humankind interacts with the world. to breathe, to remember that if there are Why can’t we be kind to nature and no trees humanity has already vanished.

© Ali Shokri | Passion of Trees

© Ali Shokri | Passion of Trees

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© Ali Shokri | Passion of Trees

About Ali Shokri presents his work as a reminder that we need to take care of our natural world. As deforestation and the development of roads and dams ate away at the beauty of forests he has loved since childhood, Shokri began using his camera to try and make a difference. Ali Shokri is an Iranian landscape and nature photographer, has always had a love for the outdoors. Ali has been active as a passionate nature photographer since 2004, focusing on trees. known for portraying the Trees Photography, Ali was TED speaker in Baku in 2010 and published a book about the life of trees in the UK in 2017.

© Ali Shokri | Passion of Trees

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Earth Matters, more than ever

Christine Simpson

In Split Nature, English photographer Christine Simpson exposes the lack of connection between man and nature and her recent work Earth Matters expresses her reverence for our natural world. “Triggered by the difference between the city and the beauty of the Irish landscape, I began to think about the vulnerability of nature. I feel connected to the Earth and I am very aware that we, as human beings, are dependent on nature for our survival. I want to show the need to protect, celebrate, connect, and nurture the Earth.” © Christine Simpson | Undercurrents

Portfolio 24 ARTDOC

Visual experience divides the underwater worlds. “I collect objects The photographs show life world and the human such as flowers, nests, eggs, underwater: plastic, wilted above-water world.” feathers, and stones and flowers, insects, broken eggs, By splitting the waterline, photograph them all in my bird nests, and skeletons of she highlights the separation studio, using studio lamps.” fish and dolphins. Above between the two worlds. The photos are made up the water, you see dark Below the water surface, of skies, water, and natural clouds with flying birds. you see the consequences of objects, which she assembles Everything in the images human activity. And when in Photoshop using a conveys a deeper meaning. we look superficially, we masking technique. “The insects and the bees are only detect what is above the The skies are photographed exterminated by the farmers. water surface. “I remember outdoors and consist of The birds have a rigorous walking on a spotless beach multiple layers with which migration pattern that is years ago. A while later, I she consciously creates confused by the temperature walked on a beach on the dramatic cloudy skies. differences.” In Split Nature, west coast of Ireland and The water is created with the bright colours above saw that it was all covered multiple layers. “In my water suggest beauty and with plastic. When I saw studio, I have a container of idealism, while underwater that, I got very angry.” water where I photograph you see dark and muddy the waterline. Each photo © Christine Simpson | Birds Matter colours. With the smudgy Many layers takes me a long time before tones underwater, she Christine Simpson creates it is finished.” illustrates the disturbance her work with the help of Simpson sees her digital Simpson’s photographs have damaged it and need to of the Earth for granted, of the natural beauty of Photoshop. Each photo composite as another explore imbalance in nature, take better care of the Earth. but almost everything is the ocean. “To attract the is digitally manipulated representation of life, with by using surrealism and I believe that if we damage part of a complex kind of viewer, I use aesthetics, so and consists of fifty to its multi-faceted layers. “My digital manipulation to the Earth, we do damage ecosystem that reproduces that people look longer at sixty different shots taken composites reveal that which emphasize the juxtaposition ourselves. We are dependent and renews itself. What my pictures. If you take a outside and in her studio. is in front of our eyes, that of the natural and unnatural on the Earth.” happens if the ecosystem closer look at my photos, Her surreal and digital which is hidden, that which world. “A rope on which you Simpson’s work is a story is disturbed by human you will eventually see that manipulation emphasizes is needed to be revealed, balance and can fall at any about the current geological activity? I want to make the something is not right. the juxtaposition of the imagined, or dreamed.” moment: this is how I see age, the Anthropocene. viewer feel that it is still You see the water line that natural and unnatural the planet at this moment. She wants the viewer to salvageable. I think we have I see that nature is out of recognize the beauty of the to take the responsibility on balance. My pictures are planet, but also to become our shoulders to try to do warning signals for the aware of the ecosystem. something to save the planet future of the planet. We “We can take the beauty and our future generations.”

26 © Christine Simpson | ARTDOC Everything’s (dis)connected

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Spiritual approach and metaphors. “I love surreal natural world with Christine Simpson has the work and approach trees, birds, foxes, ferns, always been interested in of Minor White and flowers, roots, and rocks. with a other photographers, The use of a composite of spiritual approach. “I believe who meditated in nature. different layers combined in karma. I try to be the These photographers have with artificial lights best person I can be. I try to always inspired me by the creates an atmosphere of treat the Earth, the animals, multiple layers of meaning a paradisiacal world of a and the people as well as and beauty in their work. balanced ecosystem. The possible. I meditate every Minor White talked about series has been created week, which works very well equivalence in photography, during the pandemic. for my photography. It clears which has inspired me in my “The shock of Covid-19 is my head. When you look work.” a reminder to us of how at a leaf of a tree, it’s just a vulnerable we are as a leaf, but when you meditate Earth Matters species, and how everything and then photograph it, In her recently released and everyone on our planet you become aware of every work, Earth Matters, is connected. Many of us little detail in that leaf and Simpson shows composite have turned to nature to of its relationship with the landscapes that depict reduce stress levels, improve environment.” an understanding of the mental health, and stay Even though her complexity, fragility, and physically active. Arising © Christine Simpson | It’s still a beautiful World photography is full of transient nature of our from this, significant positive colour, she was inspired living planet. In line with outcomes have emerged, by several her previous artworks, such as our growing photographers, such as she continues to express awareness, understanding, Minor White and John her deep-felt reverence and appreciation of nature.” My composites reveal that which Blakemore. White sought for our natural world. In equivalences with symbols these photo works, we see a is in front of our eyes, that which is hidden, that which is needed to “ be revealed, imagined, or dreamed.

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About Christine currently lives in Southern Ireland and has done so since 1989. Shortly after her arrival, she secured a position as a Photography Lecturer on both the BA Design Communications and BA Art at Waterford Institute of Technology. Outside of academia, Christine is a practicing Artist and Curator. She is represented by Gormley’s Fine Art, Dublin and Belfast and Curated in London. Her work has been shown in Ireland, Spain, Great Britain, New York (which includes the United Nations Headquarters) and Japan.

© Christine Simpson | Let it grow

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“I feel connected to the Earth and I am very aware that we, as human beings, are dependent on nature for our survival. I want to show the need to protect, celebrate, connect, and nurture the Earth.

© Christine Simpson | Disenchantment 34 ARTDOC

Looking at the photograph by Minor White, contrast, a photographer must start from Portland, Oregon, 1964, I observed that the visible, even when he arranges the harmonious lines, luminous leaves that scene himself. This concept makes him a seem to reflect light, surfaces with deep servant to the visible and gives photography The Photograph as blacks and lines crossing each other. The a mechanical and impersonal aspect. But proportions of the image and the subtle precisely this fact that the visible reality is details strengthen the calm that radiates the starting point enables the photographer from the photograph. The fact that the to develop something very primordial: Metaphor photograph is made in subdued light, and perception itself, and connected to this is that the photographer has consciously made the psychology of perception. use of it, gives me as a viewer a certain form The photographer’s perception has two of deep emotion. There isn’t much to see extremes: the world outside him, which is in the photograph. There is no event that I the visible, and on the other hand, the world can analyze, no story, no anecdote. There is inside him, his consciousness. The outside Does a photograph show reality? Or does it reveal the emotions only the photographer’s attention to a small world is an infinite field of possibilities from the photographer intends to show? An investigation into the piece of almost insignificant reality, sharply which he can select. The photographer, who photograph as a metaphor and the psychology of perception, with etched leaves, worn-out wooden fence, and is shaped by his past, his upbringing, and rich contrasts. his social and cultural situation, makes the the theory of equivalence of Minor White as a guide. According But because the photograph is abstract choice of subject and the form in which the to White, the Equivalence is ‘the backbone of photography as a and at the same time, extremely concrete, shot is taken and presented. How he looks medium of expression-creation.’ it is an excellent example of the most at the world is charged with a certain view elementary form of visual language. What and attitude and will determine what and is this photograph about? Does it deal with how he photographs. structures, harmonious lines with light and Art historian E. H. Gombrich, one of the shadow? Or with something else, something first to study art from a psychological that is alluded to, but remains invisible? perspective, speaks of ‘mental sets.’ Every artist observes from within a mental scene, Psychology of perception which among other things, is determined The philosophy of photography struggles by the expectations with which he perceives with one great problem; a photograph is reality. Since the philosopher Kant, we supposed to be a representation of reality. know that any perception whatsoever can While painters have the opportunity to only occur via categories inherent to the make their interpretation visible utilizing mind. When viewing and interpreting a a particular style or through a special photograph, the above will have to be taken technique, they can paint their dreams into account. and fantasies directly onto the canvas. In

Photo Culture 36 © Minor White | Portland, 1964 Gelatin silver print image, The Minor White Archive, Princeton University ARTDOC Art Museum, bequest of Minor White (x1980-4083). © Trustees of Princeton University

Language of the image metaphors, its story consisting of images What does the photo of Minor White without words, fixed images, moments, inform me about? If I want to answer this and places, visual abstractions in space question, I will have to ask myself what and time. Besides, what they represent the relationship is between the image and are ideas, feelings, emotions, views, layers, which remain concealed. In terms opinions, and commentaries. Photography of the science of semiology, brought to doesn’t depict reality, but always refers photography by Roland Barthes, we have to to a view and concept of reality. It shows ask the relation between the signifier and how the world is experienced, how the the signified, the sign and what it means. reality is filtered and experienced by the Photography speaks a different language photographer’s consciousness. This is why from the verbal language, a language that is photographs are metaphors. Technically primordial, but by no means less complex: viewed, photos literary are prints of the the language of the image. Just as words visible, but merely as images, as visual refer to meanings, the image-elements of a words. The metaphor connects reality, as photograph also refer to meanings. it appears to us through the senses, with It would be a misconception and a the reality that we know mentally, both simplification to assume that a photograph intellectually and emotionally, as an internal only refers to the visible reality, which it experience. The photograph as a metaphor renders two-dimensionally. If I want to is the visualization of this connection, and understand White’s photograph, I must as such, it is a presence and absence at the learn to read its language. Why does the same time. photograph make me think of peace and harmony, but at the same time, the Dichotomy shadows of life? The photo appears to be Take another photograph, one by Sebastião deep attention to the natural world, to a Salgado, Korem Camp, Ethiopia, 1984. bond with the earth, harmony, and dark Salgado was not considered as an artist memories of a past. The photograph bridges in the time he took the picture, but as a the gap between matter and mind, which photojournalist who used to photograph brings me beyond its own depiction. To suffering, poverty, illness, and death all understand this, we have to take the road over the world. The photograph poses a back, from the external, visible world to the problem for me. Can I, as realistic as the invisible, internal world: the mind. image is, see it as a metaphor, and thereby deny the harsh reality of that moment? Metap‍ hor Here we hit upon a basic dichotomy that Actually, a photograph is a metaphor, runs through all photography: photography a figurative expression that is based as art and photography as a document. on a comparison. The photographic Art photography is considered a form of representation of reality is a metaphorical expression of the photographer, whereas image of another reality, which remains is, or aims to be, visually absent. The photograph speaks in a realistic portrayal of reality.

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The critic Allan Sekula takes this dichotomy semiotics of film. He compared a film to A dream is merely dreamed. In his article, Equivalence: The as a starting point when he compares the dream and searched for the code of that Photography can be defined as a visual Perennial Trend. (1963), he claimed two photographs, one by Lewis Hine, dream. His comparison is mainly based account of a personal or collective that Equivalence is ‘the backbone depicting immigrants leaving a ship, and on the scenario of narrative films and is memory, a fixed moment of a ’state of of the photography as a medium one by Stieglitz, ‘The Steerage.’ According therefore inapplicable to all photography. mind,’ the print of an internal image. of expression-creation.’ The photo to Sekula, Stieglitz’s photograph functions Photography could better be compared to Are there general laws in the can function as an equivalent if the as a metaphor, while Hine’s documentary the act of recollection, because the images perception of images that connect the individual viewer realizes that what photograph is a metonymy. That is, the of our memory, just like photographs, are photographer to the viewer, ensuring he sees on the picture corresponds to photograph is part of a whole to which often still images. that I can read and understand the something within himself. it refers. For Sekula, the term ‘metaphor’ photograph in accordance with the White makes the connection between has a quite negative meaning because it Psycho-analytical photographer's intentions? Are there the Equivalent and the metaphor alludes to a bourgeois aestheticism, of A photographer, who uses the rules connecting all photography, in the following quote: “When any which Stieglitz is an example. According to metaphor as a tool, makes ‘memory or must we learn to read every photograph functions for a given person Sekula, documentary photography is not images’ of his experience. For him, photographic style to understand as an Equivalent. We can say that at metaphorical. This will indeed be the case if the decisive factor is not the moment, them? Does a dark photograph always that moment and for that person, the we give a limited meaning to the metaphor. but his reaction to and expression of mean fear and melancholy? How do I photograph acts as a symbol or plays the The photography by Sebastião Salgado not that moment. Does this also count know that I interpret the connotative role of a metaphor for something that is only connects the image of the refugees for the photojournalist? Here we processes correctly, and how do beyond the subject photographed.” with his consciousness and with his have to address the problem of the they influence my perception of a Thus, the photograph as metaphor concerns about the human condition but analysis of documentary photography photograph psychologically? appears to be a vehicle that connects also refers to human life in general. By our in psychological or psychoanalytical ‍ the viewer with his recollection, his act of empathy, we can connect ourselves to terms. A critic of the Marxist school, Equivalence memory, and briefly his own experience the image. The images became an archetype like Sekula, would object that this is When we describe a photograph as a of the reality. The photograph cannot be for human suffering. a flight into aesthetic domains. His vehicle of a recollection, both individual described as a record of the bare reality ‍ accusation would be true if the social and collective, it means that we need but as a reminder of our memory. Psy‍ chology of perception context were left out of consideration. to recognize the image as a memory. Philosophically seen, photography can We need a study of the psychology of By nature, a photojournalist isn’t The inherent aspect of recollection be taken as a living proof that ’reality' perception, the photographer’s, as well primarily concerned with his inside the image is a prerequisite for the is not something we can perceive as that of the viewer. The psychological subconsciousness, memories, or his spectator to read a photograph as more directly. Photography, as either art processes in the production and in the emotions, but this doesn’t make how he than a copy of the reality. or documentary, demonstrates that reception of photography deserve more looks at his subjects less determined by Recognition and recollection have every point of view provides a different attention because visual language uses an psychological factors. deep roots in our subconscious, which image, thereby refuting every form of image-vocabulary of which the elements are A seasoned photographer will be is why they determine our perception naive realism. The magical fascination often deeply hidden in the subconscious. aware of his emotional and intellectual of the reality vaguely or clearly. This we experience when looking at a The psychological approach doesn’t reactions to events he photographs is where Minor White referred to as photograph, even of well know places, necessarily entail a rejection of semiology, and will give an account of this in his ’Equivalence,' a term he took from his is proof of the incomprehensibility of but can actually make use of it. After all, photographs. The Barthesian definition predecessor Stieglitz. According to reality itself. A photograph is never semiology has made valuable distinctions, of the essence of photography as White, the Equivalence connects the mere representation, but foremost an such as those between denotation and ’that-has-been’ could be read as an photograph to the psyche of the viewer expression. Photography is not realistic, connotation, between signifier and signified. implicit explanation of photography as by means of recognition. nor is it the reality. The film theorist Christian Metz connected recollection because a recollection is psychoanalysis with semiotics in the always of something that has been. Notes Equivalence: The Perennial Trend, Minor White, PSA Journal, Vol. 29, No. 7, pp. 17-21, 1963

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#Photo Books Genesis Sebastião Salgado

Over 30 trips-traveled by foot, light aircraft, seagoing vessels, canoes, and even balloons, through extreme heat and cold and in sometimes dangerous conditions-Salgado created a collection of images showing us nature, animals, and indigenous peoples in breathtaking beauty. Mastering the monochrome with an extreme deftness to rival the virtuoso Ansel Adams, Salgado brings black-and-white photography to a new dimension; the tonal variations in his works, the contrasts of light and dark, recall the works of Old Masters such as Rembrandt and Georges de La Tour.

Manifestations of the Spirit Minor White

This book brings together White’s key biographical information-his evolution as a photographer, teacher Roland Barthes | Camera Lucida of photography, and editor of , as well as particularly insightful quotations from his journals, which he kept for more than forty years. The result is A graceful, contemplative volume, the subject, along with Susan Sontag’s On an engaging narrative that weaves through the main Camera Lucida was first published in 1979. Photography. This personal, wide-ranging, threads of White’s life, his growth as an artist, as well Commenting on artists such as Avedon, and contemplative volume--and the last as his spiritual search and ongoing struggle with his Clifford, Mapplethorpe, and Nadar, Roland book Barthes published--finds the author own sexuality and self-doubt. He sought comfort Barthes presents photography as being applying his influential perceptiveness in a variety of religious practices that influenced his outside the codes of language or culture, and associative insight to the subject of continually metamorphosing artistic philosophy. acting on the body as much as on the mind, photography. To this end, several black- and rendering death and loss more acutely and-white photos (by the likes of Avedon, than any other medium. This groundbreaking Clifford, Hine, Mapplethorpe, Nadar, approach established Camera Lucida as one Van Der Zee, and so forth) are reprinted of the most important books of theory on throughout the text.

Disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, we will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

42 © Taejay Lee ARTDOC

Japanese Garden

Highlights of Artdoc Exhibition

In hectic times, nature always has a positive effect on the human mind. Nature brings reflection and tranquillity. After experiencing nature, we can look at life from a different perspective. In our Japanese Garden exhibition, art photographers show the natural world with their sense of serenity: Naohiro Ninomiya (Strasbourg, France), Amy Marie Gladding (Suffolk, England), Wendi Schneider (Denver, Colorado), Karla Guerrero (Mexico City, Mexico), Max C Doelling (Berlin, Germany), Nino Memanishvili (Georgia), Axel Calatayud (Mexico), Julia Hiebaum (La Jolla, California), Annette Wijdeveld (Hattem, The Netherlands), Erin Nowak (Moorestown, New Jersey), Gabriel Dia (Paris,France), Noemi Heidel (Berlin, Germany), Ricardo General N. (City of La Serena, Chile), Matt Roberts (Montclair, New Jersey), Aristo Vopĕnka (Brussels, Belgium), Jennifer Graham (South Africa), Emma TS Robinson (London, United Kingdom), Justin Quinnell (Bristol, United Kingdom), Karen Miki Rohée (France), Sandrine Aim (London, United Kingdom), Teresa Fischer (Puerto Varas, Chile), Taejay Lee (A Coruña, Spain).

Exhibition 44 ARTDOC

© Aristo Vopĕnka

© Axel Calatayud | Pour la fille du soleil

© Emma TS Robinson | Nothing Lasts Forever

© Max C Doelling | Susokukan

© Jennifer Graham | Mujō

© Gabriel Dia | Sabar © Julia Hiebaum © Matt Roberts | Whitefield

© Naohiro Ninomiya | Glanage

© Karen Miki Rohée (France) | Momiji © Justin Quinnell l Lumen © Amy Marie Gladding | Earthworks

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© Karla Guerrero | My mother’s flower shop © Nino Memanishvili

© Taejay Lee

© Wendi Schneider | Lily Pads © Erin Nowak | Ethereal Wishbone

© Sandrine Aim | Vaporisation

© Annette Wijdeveld | Dialogue with Silence © Noemi Heidel | Space Between Thoughts

48 © Teresa Fischer © Ricardo General N. | The spirit. © Annette Wijdeveld | Dialogue with Silence ARTDOC

Dialogue with Silence

Annette Wijdeveld

Inspiration 50 ARTDOC

With my photography, I explore unexpected, but certainly an indelible philosophical themes that contribute to my memory. These moments are increasingly process of individual and spiritual growth rare as the rhythm of everyday life takes in life. Themes like stillness, acceptance or over. I relive these moments through being “ gratitude can always be found in my work. aware of life in the here and now. With the practice of photography I enter Dialogue with Silence is an ongoing project. into a meditative state. With silence and objectivity in mind and ‍Leaving behind all the ideas of how the leaving behind the preconceived concepts of world should look like, I create subjective how the world should look like, I photograph photographs, capturing beauty and wonders the beauty and wonder of the moment. of the moment. I utilise atmospheric With my images, I want to invite everyone conditions, multiple exposures, digital to search for the moment of ‘being’ and manipulation, diverse materials and different experience the power of the Dialogue with techniques to emphasise tactility in my Silence. prints. I create images in which time and My series Sakura should be seen as a chapter space are irrelevant. There is only one in the project Dialogue with Silence. The moment, and that is the moment of ‘being’. beauty, as you see it now will never be the There have been several moments in my life same. Things will pass, they will end, and when the universe has surprised and touched there will be constant movement in life. me with the extraordinary beauty of its The only thing you can do is accept this magical appearance. A slowing down of time movement because when life goes on, new and a deep sense of genuine connection moments will come in place and surprise you with the whole world leaves me with an with another beauty.

© Annette Wijdeveld | Sakura, Dialogue with Silence 52 ARTDOC

© Annette Wijdeveld | Dialogue with Silence 54 ARTDOC

About Annette Wijdeveld lives in Hattem, a small village in the Netherlands. She was educated at the HKU, Academy of Arts in Utrecht, where she graduated Architectural Design. In 2014 she started her education at the Photo Academy in Amsterdam and graduated in December 2019.

© Annette Wijdeveld | Dialogue with Silence 56 © Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas Images | Large sand dunes between ARTDOC Albrg and Tin Merzouga, Tadrart. South of Djanet. Algeria. 2009.

Tribute to the earth

Sebastião Salgado

Genesis sings of the magnitude of the purity of the earth, shows threatened animal species, and shows native people on different continents. The exhibition is the largest in the and had about three-and-a-half million visitors in forty-seven different museums, more than double than the exhibition Family of Man. The voluminous book of Genesis has been printed more than six hundred thousand times.

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After he stopped as an economist, we use the word as it is used in the Bible. Sebastião Salgado began a career as a social Genesis simply means the beginning. In the documentary photographer. He made Amazon still live hundreds of indigenous haunting images of starving people in the groups with whom no contact has been Sahel, photographed miners in Brazil, did made. We did this project in the hope that the project Workers on human labor, and all there is, can be preserved for the future. made the project Migrations on global That is necessary if we are to survive as a migration. In the end, photographing species.” human misery became too heavy for him, especially after the civil wars in Rwanda Colony of termites and Congo for his project, Exodus. Genesis Salgado, being one of the most famous became a mega project for eight years. photographers, is a man of great modesty. With his singing voice of a Brazilian, he He does not abide in fame, and he does not speaks emotionally about his project. “We, speak of himself as a hero, but rather as part my wife Lélia and I, came up with the entire of the grandeur of nature. “At the end of the story of Genesis and worked it out. We got whole project, I discovered that the greatest the idea to travel down the planet earth to trip I made was not to the North pole or see which parts of the world were still pure the South Pole was but was the trip to and untouched. For Genesis, I have made myself. I discovered that we are all nature. thirty-two stories in eight years, from the We are just one of the many species in the North Pole to the South Pole. We had no great kingdom of animals. We often think idea about what we would find because it about ourselves as being very important, was the first time in my life that I would but we are just as important as a colony of © Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas Images | Elephants are hunted by poachers in Zambia, so they are scared of humans and vehicles. When they see an approaching car, they usually run quickly into the bush. Kafue National Park. Zambia. 2010. photograph landscapes and animals. Until termites. If we humans disappear, it means then, I had only photographed one animal nothing to the planet. In the past, many species in my career: the human being. So, it species have become extinct, and for the was an exceptional challenge.” development of the Earth, it had no specific consequences. When I started this project, I Genesis is the beginning, as the The beginning was a big pessimist. I was very disappointed The title Genesis should not be seen as about human beings when I made the book planet was before the homo religious, according to Salgado. “Genesis Exodus, and I wanted to leave photography is the beginning, as the planet was before behind me. We left for Brazil and started to sapiens began to change it about the homo sapiens began to change it about replant the forests that have existed in my 70,000 years ago. We, humans, have spread youth. We planted more than two million 70,000 years ago. We, humans, around the globe and have destroyed a lot. trees and more than three hundred species But 45 percent of the planet is still intact. of plants. That is how we came up with the have spread around the globe and The title Genesis does not refer to a religious idea of ​starting the Genesis project.” dimension. We don’t believe in any god, but “ have destroyed a lot.

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© Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas Images | View of the junction of the Colorado and the Little Colorado from the Navajo territory. The Grand Canyon National Park begins after this junction. Arizona. USA. 2010.

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© Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas Images | Southern Right whales (Eubalaena australis), drawn to the Valdés © Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas Images | Typically, the women in the Zo’é village of Towari Ypy use the “urucum” Peninsula because of the shelter provided by its two gulfs, the Golfo San José and the Golfo Nuevo, often navigate (Bixa orellana) red fruit to their bodies. Pará State. Brazil. 2009. with their tails upright in the water. Valdés Peninsula, Argentina. 2004.

Sea iguana as a cousin The Amazon is the homeland of Salgado About publications, have also been presented in books such Salgado explains why Africa is a special and obviously got a special focus in his Sebastião Salgado was born on February 8th, 1944 in as Other Americas (1986), Sahel: l’homme en détresse chapter in the book, Genesis: “Many of the project. “I made a chapter about Amazon Aimorés, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He lives (1986), Sahel: el fin del camino (1988), Workers hotspots, where many disappearing species during six different journeys. I found the in Paris. Having studied economics, Salgado began (1993), Terra (1997), Migrations and Portraits (2000), of animals and plants exist are located in Amazon so important that I will go back his career as a professional photographer in 1973 in and Africa (2007). Touring exhibitions of this work Africa. Personally, I think Africa is the most there shooting a separate project. I want Paris, working with the photo agencies Sygma, , have been, and continue to be, presented throughout and Magnum Photos until 1994, when he and Lélia the world. Sebastião Salgado has been awarded important continent. There, I have found to publish a separate book, which will Wanick Salgado formed Amazonas images, an agency numerous major photographic prizes in recognition the greatest biodiversity and the largest appear after about four years. Pantanal created exclusively for his work. He has travelled of his accomplishments. He is a UNICEF Goodwill ecosystems. There are still tribes in Africa is the southern part of the Amazon and in over 100 countries for his photographic projects. Ambassador, and an honorary member of the Academy that live in a very pure way, and I had is essentially the same ecosystem, but it Most of these, besides appearing in numerous press of Arts and Sciences in the United States. the privilege to stay for a while with the consists only of the swamp. In Pantanal, Bushmen in Botswana. In Africa, I have seen many animals appear just for your nose.” landscapes that you have nowhere else.”

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© Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas Images | South Sandwich Islands. Chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) on an iceberg located between Zavodovski and Visokoi islands. South Sandwich Islands. 2009.

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“At the end of the whole project, I discovered that the greatest trip I made was not to the North pole or the South Pole was but was the trip to myself. I discovered that we are all nature.

© Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas Images | Marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus). Galápagos. Ecuador. 2004. 68 © Naohiro Ninomiya | Taki ARTDOC

Whisperings of nature

Naohiro Ninomiya

Is all photography embedded with a hidden meaning, coded into the image by the photographer? Or does the spectator project his own experience of life in images that appeal to him? There is no standard rational answer, as images might stretch beyond the boundaries of our mental brain. The Japanese photographer Naohiro Ninomiya plays with our visual puzzles, persistent in his conviction that there is no metaphor, no concept and no rationale.

Portfolio 70 © Naohiro Ninomiya | Nokomi ARTDOC

The photographs of Naohiro of things which constitute of the water according to Ninomiya, now living my life. I think life itself is their instinct. They are like in France, are personal the most important thing me, I thought. That is why memories of his hometown for us human beings. All I decided to take pictures in Japan. The images show I can do is taking pictures of carps in the water. I was intimate details of nature, and hang them on the wall. looking for an appropriate like a bark of a tree, flowers I’ll continue until the end paper that would be good for in a glass, a solitary tree until the wall is completely this series. The department in the field, a ripple in covered.” Gifu in Japan where I live is the water surface with famous for the handmade reflections of clouds and Jumping carps paper called Mino-Washi. trees. They all tell little His parents’ house in his This paper is made with the stories; not of prose, but Japanese hometown is built same water in which carps more like poetic whisperings on the immediate side of a swim in front of my house. of koans. “Even when you small river. In his childhood, I felt it would be beautiful might think so, there is no he listened to the sound of that the carps will be conscious metaphor in the the jumping carps in the immortalized on this paper picture. The characteristic river during spring. “When I made with the same water Glanage (meaning returned to Japan in spring which a carp brought up. ‘collection’) is the absence a few years ago, I listened I immersed the paper in a of concept. Neither is there to this sound once again. simple silver chlorobromide a message in the images. I I identified myself with emulsion.” just show the trivial beauty these carps who jump out

I want to pick up things which we don’t usually see and sublimate them as vaporous relics of a frozen “ present.

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The print as an object For that reason, Ninomiya takes his pictures For Ninomiya the physicality of the print is with analogue , like the primordial. “In our modern society where Toyo-View 45 GII, the Mamiya RZ67, and we continually produce and throw away Nikon FMII, Ricoh GR1s. He prints his work photographs like toilet paper, I want to in his darkroom, using selenium toning for make a tangible object, the ‘photographic the sake of aesthetics and longevity. For print’, with weight and material presence. some images, he uses Japanese paper which Photography is not simply equivalent to an he impregnates with a sensitive layer using a image on a screen. For me, photography brush. He also uses gold-tone printing. “The is foremost the tangible object. I take power of this series is so impressive that I responsibility for the medium in which have decided to adopt this elaborate process I showcase my work. I’d like to resist the for my work.” unbearable lightness of photography today.”

© Naohiro Ninomiya | Taki © Naohiro Ninomiya | Taki

Waterfall presence that both frightens and intrigues The waterfall pictures show the utter me. There is a painting entitled ‘Painting minimalism of the work of Naohiro of Nachi waterfall’ which, for 14 centuries, Ninomiya. Against a dark background, was believed to incarnate divinity. The we are able to see eerie images of falling first time I saw this painting, I saw nothing water, appearing like a translucent ghost. more than an elegant brushstroke on a Ninomiya tells about the birth of these dark background. Only after a long time, images: “I found the picture ‘Nachi I discovered all the details and depth it Waterfall’ somewhere on the internet, and I contained. It renewed with my initial, was immediately fascinated by this picture, contradictory impression of waterfalls. I which appeared to me as calligraphy. travelled around in my region to shoot the Waterfalls are places of mystery for me waterfall. To print the picture, I used the where I feel an indescribable, inhuman gelatine silver print and selenium toning.”

© Naohiro Ninomiya | Glanage © Naohiro Ninomiya | Glanage 74 ARTDOC

© Naohiro Ninomiya | Glanage 76 ARTDOC

Small gems For Ninomiya, these simple and humble For over a year, Naohiro Ninomiya has moments are like looking for a kind begun to take pictures with a compact of precious stone or a religious icon. camera, without bothering about the "I want to pick up things which we concept, but the act of picking up don't usually see and sublimate them things. "I am collecting pictures now as as vaporous relics of a frozen present. I was accumulating things when I was These moments are so fugitive, so a child. During this past year, I have fragile, so beautiful. Our life is, in started to feel a sense of emancipation. the end, an accretion of this kind of I have shot many rolls of film, picking moments. This way of doing things is up a considerable number of everyday much like gleaning to me. And as France pieces, artefacts, items or spots that is my land of welcome, this is why I I find interesting. And when I look at entitled this series with the French word my contact sheet with a magnifying ‘Glanage’. It felt natural, perfectly fit, glass, my eyes sometimes get caught but also refers, as a tribute to my family by a small shining gem. I then choose of traditional farmers, back in Japan. I the good timing, determine the right intend to pursue this series until my last print format and the gem starts to shine days. And as this collection of gleaned brighter, just like a diamond being cut items will grow, hanging on the wall, it and polished. Keeping small dimensions will more and more look, from afar, like is important. The picture has to remain the Milky Way. A Milky Way that will as little like a diamond. I chose to keep expand. A golden Milky Way that could theses dimensions between 5 and 30cm." be seen a vital lead for my life."

About Naohiro Ninomiya (1969) was born in Nagoya, Japan. He graduated at École supérieure des arts décoratifs de Strasbourg. After Ninomiya finished his study, he worked in a business company. But it didn’t feel right, so he decided to quit his job and turned to farming,which didn’t please him either.

© Naohiro Ninomiya | Glanage

© Naohiro Ninomiya | Glanage

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“I just show the trivial beauty of things which constitute my life.

© Naohiro Ninomiya | Glanage 80 © Jennifer Graham | Mujō ARTDOC

Impermanence, Transience and Mutability

Jennifer Graham

Inspiration 82 ARTDOC

With no formal training in and fantasy, to give them an conspiratorial quality to it. photography, but a lifelong evocative and otherworldly Each image is an attempt, love of the , the feel. With a love of vintage on my part, to capture camera has become a means biological prints and Japanese something of the essence “ of artistic expression for me, Sumi-e art, elements of both of these fleeting moments particularly in recent years. of these art forms strongly of vanishing beauty and is It has provided me with a influence my work. suffused with an atmosphere much needed creative outlet of Sabishi (the Japanese word in the midst of daily life and These images were taken for solitariness or loneliness): a way to reconnect with the during the months of A solitary bird, poised or in natural world. Autumn, most of them in my flight, the moon obscured garden. I have entitled this by autumn foliage, a tree Through recent series, Mujō, a Japanese word momentarily illuminated by experimentation and self- originating in Buddhism afternoon light, for example. teaching, I have introduced meaning impermanence, Also, by adding tones and digital processes into my transience or mutability. The textures, the resultant work. Utilising various link between impermanence patina is intended to give editing apps, images are and beauty is particularly the photographs themselves layered with tones and evident during this season, a weathered or aged feel in textures, blurring the lines especially in the changing keeping with the theme of between photography and hues of leaves and in the impermanence. painting, and between reality light, which has an intimate,

© Jennifer Graham | Mujō 84 © Jennifer Graham | Mujō ARTDOC

© Jennifer Graham | Mujō

About Jennifer Graham is an artist based in South Africa. Her fine art photography and digital collages draw inspiration from the local landscape and its abundant birdlife, flora and fauna. Introducing digital processes into her work, images are layered with tones and textures, blurring the lines between photography and painting, and between reality and fantasy. These additional elements give her work a distinctive otherworldly and evocative feel. With a love of vintage biological prints and Japanese Sumi-e art, elements of both of these art forms strongly influence her creations.

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The visualization of the volume of melting ice

Dillon Marsh

This year, 2020, besides being the year of the pandemic crisis, is on course to be the warmest since records began in the 19th century. The poles are heating up, causing icebergs to melt, and glaciers are melting down at a rapid pace. Can we ever visualize the volume of this melting ice? Very probably not, as it is likely beyond our imagination. South-African photographer Dillon Marsh, has found a sophisticated solution to make us visually aware of the size of melting ice. He uses CGI, computer-generated images, to visualize the melting glaciers in India and Nepal in his project, Counting the Costs. His aim, he says, is “to create work that offers people a new perspective so that they can come to clearer conclusions.”

© Dillon Marsh | 18.64 cubic meters – the average volume of ice lost on Chhota Shigri glacier every minute

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The original photographs quality to it when made buying the products these of the urban environments large. It also echoes the advertisements promote. in India and Nepal have shape of our planet, drawing Still, the veracity is not a quotidian and natural our attention to the fact that often a highly-debated issue, look. In one photo, we see this is a global problem.” whereas in documentary a typical downtown busy Marsh compiled data or photojournalistic work Nepali street with electrical from scientific reports to this would be seen as highly cables, a pumpkin stall on calculate the rate at which misleading, and is officially the right-hand side and a certain glaciers are losing banned by awards such as grocery stall on the left. mass. Of his work, he the World Press Photo. This Central in the picture, amid says, “Using CGI, I have all is a non-issue for photo a pile of rubbish, a more created accurately-scaled artist Marsh. He combines than two meters high blue ice models and placed his digital photographs ball dominates the scene, them within typical human with images made by the giving it a surreal and environments. The aim is computer software Maya. extraterrestrial atmosphere. to draw attention to the “I have used medium and The ball measures 7.06 dramatic climate changes analogue cubic meters – the average that continue unabated cameras in the past,” he says, volume of ice lost, every while we go about our “but due to the high cost minute, on Naradu glacier day-to-day lives.” of film, I exclusively shoot in Himachal Pradesh. The with a now. I blue ice spheres, created CGI don’t use any special add-on with CGI, which Marsh The use of CGI has been gear; all my effects are done interweaves with his images developed mainly in the in post-production. I use with the help of Photoshop, advertisement industry. Autodesk Maya to create the © Dillon Marsh | 7.06 cubic meters – the average volume of ice lost on Naradu glacier every minute become, in a magical way, Hyper-realistic images are models with their detailed exceptionally credible. used to create ‘eye-catching textures, reflections and On his choice to use the visual masterpieces’, to transparency. I then paste CGI generated spheres, convince of their stopping the rendered models into March says, “There are power. CGI images are cost- my photos in Photoshop, several reasons why I chose saving, and much faster than using several techniques to Although I am concerned with to represent the volumes as the making of traditional ensure that the size of the spheres. The sphere is the photographic images. model is accurate according how poorly we treat our planet, most compact volumetric The audience of such to my research. A lot more shape, having the lowest advertisements may not be tweaking follows as I try to I don’t personally want to be an area-to-volume ratio. It is aware of the computerized make the model look like a familiar shape, but has fabricated images with it’s realistically part of the environmental activist. an intriguing surrealistic which they are seduced into scene.” “

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Marsh merges these Misrach, who have both generated imagery into my photographic images with done fantastic projects photos to reveal aspects 3D-images in Photoshop, about our relationship with of this relationship that in which he tries to make the environment. I am also couldn’t be shown with his images as convincing a huge fan of speculative photography alone. I first and natural as possible, science fiction books, used this technique to unhindered by old-school many of which provide document the mining opinions about documentary imaginative predictions of industry of South Africa. In photography. “The style our future relationship with the resulting series called of my photos is usually the planet we live on.” For What It’s Worth, I used natural and uncomplicated. GCI to represent the total With my composition, I’m Climate Change volumes of copper, gold, generally trying to create The project, Counting the diamonds and platinum visuals that are balanced, Costs, is not the first in group metals concerning interesting, but relatively which Marsh had used CGI the ground from which they placid. The rendered model imagery. An earlier work, were extracted. In 2019, I is usually the focus, but the in which there are spheres turned my focus to climate scenery around it is evenly of gold and platinum, change and the rapid loss filled with things to draw copper and diamonds, the of glacial ice we’ve been the eye. I don’t go overboard CGI objects represent scale experiencing for decades. with my processing, either, models of the materials For my series, Counting preferring to keep things removed from the ground. the Costs, I represented looking fairly natural.” “Ever since I began working the rate at which glaciers His inspiration comes as a photographic artist, I’ve are shrinking by placing from the great masters in been drawn to topics centred accurately scaled CGI ice environmental photography, around the relationship spheres into street scene combined with science- between humans and the photos I took while on a trip fiction. “I’m inspired by environment. A few years through India and Nepal.” photographers like Edward ago, I took this a step further Burtynsky and Richard by incorporating computer- © Dillon Marsh | 13.45 cubic meters – the average volume of ice lost on Mera glacier every hour

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Despite his personal is clear that similar weather increasing awareness in his concerns about climate anomalies will become more audience. “I avoid bringing change, Marsh defines frequent.” politics into my work. I himself as an artist. It is not uncommon that don’t want to make certain “Although I am concerned documentary photography people or groups think that with how poorly we treat is deeply intermingled with I’m targeting them as the our planet, I don’t personally politics. Most photographers problem. In essence, we are want to be an environmental have a political urge or sense all complicit; adding politics activist. My aim is to create in the background of their to the message just muddies work that offers people a work, mixing the aesthetics the water. I hope that my new perspective, so that of the images with social work reaches a wide and they can come to clearer and political concern. But eclectic audience. Politicians conclusions. My home city that doesn’t mean that and policymakers may well of Cape Town has only the artists are themselves have the power to activate recently escaped a several- politically active or want systemic changes. Still, it’s year drought, and even their photographs to be generally the collective will though it is hard to ascertain interpreted as such. This of the average person that the exact influence climate is true for Dillon Marsh determines the direction in change on this situation, it as well. His main target is which change happens.”

About Dillon Marsh is a photographic artist from Cape Town, South Africa. His work often isolates and emphasizes specific features of particular landscapes – usually elements that show how we, as a species, engage both deliberately and unintentionally with the world around us. He has also introduced computer-generated imagery into some of my photographic series to reveal © Dillon Marsh | 62.15 cubic meters – the average volume of ice lost on Tipra Bank glacier every half hour underlying features or dynamics that can’t be illustrated with photography alone.

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“Ever since I began working as a photographic artist, I’ve been drawn to topics centred around the relationship between humans and the environment. © Dillon Marsh | 26.26 cubic meters – the average volume of ice lost on Shorang Himal glacier every half hour

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Artdoc is an international online magazine dedicated to the world of photography. We aim at connecting the community of photography, including photographers, publishers, museums, “Photography is the art that combines galleries, collectors, art students, and every reality and vision, feeling and truth, interested person in the world of lens-based arts. psychological depth, and political We believe that photography is the most relevant awareness. global plastic form of art. Photography is a tool to communicate about the world that surrounds - Artdoc Magazine us and our feelings about it. Photography is the visual storytelling medium of our time, and it's deeply pervaded in the veins of our society and culture. The art of photography is not limited Artdoc Magazine #2 | 2020 to the aesthetics of the images themselves but © 2020 Artdoc Magazine www.artdoc.photo © 2020 All images by the featured photographers encompasses the story behind them. The name

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted Artdoc refers to our vision of photography. The in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from Artdoc Magazine. former distinction between art photography

Front cover photograph © Naohiro Ninomiya | Taki and documentary photography is not relevant Back cover photograph © Annette Wijdeveld | Sakura, Dialogue with Silence anymore. In recent years, the two fields have merged, and contemporary photography is a blend Follow us: of mirrors and windows.

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