lostcoastphoto.com
Habitat
... a different kind of landscape
Conventional photographic landscapes are done with view cameras, in a pseudo-pristine place. Or, if one must use a smaller camera, it's in color and usually with a wide angle lens and carefully framed foreground objects of interest; wildflowers, or perhaps a rock. Actually, doing classic calendar-type landscapes is fairly easy, with a little practice. The rules are pretty clear. So clear that they've been spoofed by a few people.
But then, I never liked rules.
Sometimes it takes years to make sense out of early influences. I read Edward Weston's daybooks way back in the late 70s, early in my punk years. But it wasn't until just a few years ago that I saw his later work, his California landscapes done on a Guggenheim grant. Here, among the natural wonders, one finds death and decay. Clearly, an aging Weston was feeling his own mortality. They are not easy pictures to look at. They require careful study, long reflection.
Recently I've become increasingly conscious of a different kind of mortality. Seeing the decaying infrastructure all around me, I'm painfully aware that an economy which bases its entire being upon an assumption of never-ending growth... will eventually find itself straining to maintain what it has already built. That time is already here, and it's not getting any better. The death of materialism, localized and easily overlooked for now... it's here, in these images. There is rebirth here too, the return of nature, sometimes with human assistance.
So here they are, my gothic landscapes, my existential look at the world around me. My juxtapositions of nature trying to take back its own, the works of man fighting a losing battle. I'll add to these over time. Really, it's just one more facet of the street photography I've been doing for years. Except that sometimes, there isn't any street.
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Ken Mierzwa - Copyright 2006, all other rights reserved
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May 20, 2006