Marco Bohr
dal 14/1/2008 al 22/2/2008
Segnalato da
14/1/2008
Marco Bohr
Mummery + Schnelle, London
Floating Cities. Photography. The artist tend to take up the role of a Flaneur, suggesting a detachment to his subject further emphasized by showing their backs, a common device used by the Romanticist painter Casper David Friedrich.
My photographic practice deals with the contemplation of the landscape. In my images however, I concentrate my attention on the observer rather the landscape itself. In that sense, I am more interested in the people engulfed in the activity of seeing rather than what they are seeing. The landscape is often not more but a faint suggestion, giving the viewer the opportunity to imagine one.
My subject’s activity is of course mirrored in my own activity as a photographer. In ‘Rochers-de-Naye, 2006’ for example, a man is looking at two fellow tourists at the edge of an observation deck in the Alps. It is unclear if he is observing them or the surrounding atmosphere – suggesting an ambiguity that I often make use of myself while photographing. In other works as well, the uncertain relationship between individual and grouped subjects is further emphasized by disparate distance to each other and to the camera.
In that sense, I tend to take up the role of a Flaneur, suggesting a detachment to my subject further emphasized by showing their backs – a common device used by the Romanticist Painter Casper David Friedrich. In addition, inspired by a concept in Japanese Art called yohaku (meaning void), it is important to note that any empty space is treated with equal importance. By employing such devices – including Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment – I wish to position my subjects in such ways that evoke the aesthetics of a film still. The desired effect is to create an image that at first glance seems posed, slightly unbelievable.
I wish to further emphasize the meditative nature of my subject’s pursuit with the choice of locations. Here, I make no difference between a pilgrim following the ancient route to Finisterre in Spain, and an aeroplane enthusiast on the lookout at Heathrow Airport – both have subscribed to a ritualistic movement that comes to its climax in a spectacle. The subjects I photograph tend to get lost in what they are seeing, looking out into another world, maybe also longing to be somewhere else.
Imagine: © Phu-Tay-Ho [2006] C print 20 x 24 inch
Mummery + Schnelle
83 Great Titchfield Street - London