These photographs are about my relationship with the Earth, whereby I am representing humanity. But in my work as a photographer I can only speak for myself. I am celebrating the majesty and grandeur of nature and how we fit into it. In the photographs showing distant vast landscapes, I show evidence of humans through cars and electric towers all dwarfed by the awesome storm clouds and mountains. This beauty of nature is also evident in the more intimate views of the farms and country roads, again, showing our relationship with Earth and man’s harnessing of it for his own use.


Mine is a positive, optimistic point of view, because the scenes are beautiful and that implies that the beauty, even beyond or in spite of man’s tampering will always be there.


I use contrasting points of view. The macrocosm and microcosm. From very distant vistas, to closer images of rural scenes, down to close-up views of earth, moss and clovers, tree trunks, bark and root.


I strip them all of colour to present a raw image that allows the viewer to respond emotionally to shape, texture and contrast. I use techniques such as selective focus, lens vignette and rather large print size to draw the viewer in. The soft focus on the edge, gives a dream like effect and a “vintage photography” feeling from a time before we knew we were destroying our environment with harmful technology.


The works also evoke a quiet and calm sense of serenity. Although there is evidence of man’s existence in the photographs through the farms, buildings and towers, there are no actual humans in the images, so the lone viewer becomes the only perceived living participant in the scene.


Visual drama created by massive dark clouds has always intrigued me. It is one of the ways for me to understanding how small we humans really are in this universe.


All 33" x 22" digital, Giclée prints.



I have also created a short film that expresses some of my concerns about the destruction of nature.


  
               
Ghosts of NatureVideo11.htmlVideo11.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0

 

Ghosts of

Nature

Sol Lang photographsSol_Lang.html

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