The sculptural nature of these landforms is heightened by the ambiguous scale within their environmental context, only evidenced by the subtle juxtaposition of nondescript vegetation. This work is a reflection of the romantic notions of the pictorial movement in photography. It makes reference to the F64 club and the work of Ansel Adams, the sublime nature of landscape painting and photo-realist charcoal drawings made from photographic images.
Large format analogue photography / silver gelatine prints / 5 in a series of 18.
Glaciar Upsala / Austral Andes, Argentine Patagonia / silver gelatin print 100 × 127 cm. The brittle top layer or ‘fracture zone’ of the glacier moves as a single piece over the lower more plastic flow deforming it under pressure. The terminal moraine, at the base of the glacier, is formed by the deposition of glacial material and left exposed as the glacier retreats.
Stromatolite / Chilean Patagonia / silver gelatin print 150 × 124 cm. Formed by the sedimentary layering of microorganisms. Early microbial stromatolites date to 2.724 billion years ago and recently discovered stromatolites extend as far back as 3.450 billion years.
Tres Cruces diptych / silver gelatin prints 160 × 404 cm. Landforms situated in the Quebrada de Humahuaca 'cracked mountain range' of the Andes in northern Argentina.
Los Castillos / triptych / silver gelatine prints 65x 251cm. Created as a result of the tectonic shifts of the oceanic crust of the South American Plate which drove it upwards and out of the ground. As precipitation is sporadic with severe temperature oscillations, the cracking at the rock surfaces of this site is compounded. The valley’s history is culturally rich with 10 000 years of inhabitants, being a caravan route to the Inca empire in the 15th Century, the passage from Peru to Argentina and Chile for the Spanish imperialists and the setting for many battles of the Spanish War of Independence. The Rio Grande roars by it’s base in the winter and the riverbed, dry in summer, facilitates the whiplashing winds with sandy ammunition to carve fissures into it’s faces.
La Sophia / triptych / silver gelatin prints 90 × 285cm. Torres del Paine, Chilean Patagonia. Exposed granite contrasts with the remnants of the landform’s eroded sedimentary stratum.