Sacha-thesis outline

"How did you make this photograph?" Is the question I'm going to ask myself this year.

• personal diary to describe experiences while photographing
• method description of my work
• a fictive diary of constructed landscapes?
• studies on the Antrhopocene

1st draft: A 100 views on a mountain

Almost a quarter of our Earth’s landmass can be considered mountainous. In this research I’m collecting a 100 different views on a mountain from the human perspective. We as humans, have a rich history with mountains. We look at them, we enjoy them, we are afraid of them, we walk on them, we want to be on top of them, we write about them, we paint them, we take pictures of them, we name them, we carve them out, we want to defy them and so on. I’m going to collect views from people with different backgrounds and experiences with mountains. This may turn into an interview with the person in question or researching books, articles and films.

Peoples views: Local, Sherpa, Climber, Skier, Snowboarder, Rescuer, Paraglider, Pilot, Geologist, Philosopher, Snow scraper, Artist, Photographer, Filmmaker, Geographer, Anthropologist, Park ranger, Delivery man, Tourist, Writer, Poet, Astronaut, Native American, Buddhist, Monk, Maya, Aboriginals.

References:

Aldo Leopold: Think like a mountain

Robert Mcfarlane: a lot of books

Vilem Flusser: NATURAL: MIND

2nd draft: The making of mountains

In this research project I’m making a method description of my work. Describing all steps and experiences within the making process, then the selection process and eventually the presentation process. This will help me reflecting on why I’m taking the steps that I take. It will also give more depth and inside into the experiences I have while taking my photographs.

References:

Ansel Adams: Examples: the making of 40 photographs

Introduction

Before I came to Piet Zwart Institute I already had a strong interest in how we, as humans, interact with the landscapes around us. I've been researching this relationship in my work for a long time now and themes as romanticism, escapism and the sublime are at the core of making it. In this introduction I’ll do a retrospect on what I made before and what I’m working on now.

Earlier work

About ten years ago, I made a shift in the media I used. While studying in the painting department of my Bachelor's, I started using photography. I became attracted to remote and vast landscapes, but they also urged me to manipulate them. I did that by putting a person and/or object in the landscape, to make the scene feel alienating. I wanted to play with nature as we observe it when we, for example, go for a walk in the forest. This way I showed that our recognizable environments can be transformed into a space for mysterious dreams.

The objects I used were, in contrast to the landscape, very man made. Materials like plastic sheets, balloons, pvc pipes or rope. I always tried to find a contrast as well as an agreement with the objects and the landscape. Sometimes I want to emphasize the playfulness or turn the human figure into some divine creature that has floating objects around itself. Human beings are predominant on this planet, but at the same time we are just little creatures in this massive environment.

What kind of role we take in as human beings in nature is still something I want to explore in my work. The human figure in my images is always me, because for me it’s important to really experience that particular moment within the landscape myself. It is about searching for that sublime experience. The experience that is always bound to nature and makes you feel powerful and very small at the time.

Recently In 2020, I started doing my Master’s degree at Piet Zwart Institute. The covid-19 pandemic broke out in this year and traveling was out of the question. Under Covid restrictions, I started working in the studio to make self-constructed landscapes. I wanted to escape the reality I inhabited. Missing the possibility to go places, at first I wanted to make landscapes that look like Earth. When I was forced to cancel my trip to the Alps I started to build my own snowy mountains. Later I became interested in traveling even further and became inspired by distant expeditions and images from other planets. I started to incorporate the alien aspect in these self-constructed landscapes. Some of the images evoke uncanniness that speaks of alien landscapes, dreams of the ‘otherworldly’ and science fiction cinema. Through my miniaturisation of landscape photography, I have been able to focus on photography as image making rather than recording. Instead of capturing an image, I created an image from scratch by building a landscape myself. This gives a lot of control in the image-making. I developed interesting methods within this project to explore themes of escapism and traveling within strict limitations. The works deceives the viewer, creating a sublime landscape from otherwise prosaic materials. This way I want to challenge the notion of the imagined sublime and our willingness to believe in it.

Now

In 2021, when traveling was accessible again, I made a series of photographs in the Swiss Alps. In this series I approached the mountains as beings. They seem in constant motion by the changing light and the clouds lurking over them. Where normally the mountains of Switzerland are associated with the picturesque, I wanted to show the roughness of the landscape. After a lot of driving, climbing and walking, the mountains seemed to be ‘coming at me’. I felt shaky and light in my head. This force of nature took me over. The landscapes are isolated and in most of the photographs there’s no trace of humans. They become alienating. Through the black and white, I show the roughness and purity of the surroundings.