In these large-format photographs, the monumentality of the subjects echoes the sculptural aspect of the object. Immoderation, a recurring motif, guides the viewer on an ambiguous journey. A headless tree trunk illuminates a dark forest with a surreal, bright orange. Two other photographs taken at the same location, Shotgun Rapids, Idaho, hang nearby, allowing the viewer to see them as a triptych.

This series of photographs reveals the sheer power of the ecosystem, with giant lines that the camera is unable to capture in their entirety. At first glance into the impressive darkness, the eye perceives a more fragile reality: the trees are stripped of their needles, knocked down and torn apart by the wind. We find this same ambiguity in a photograph of charred tree trunks, always placed firmly in a setting where the black stands out against the blurry plantlife.

Laura McPhee plays with proportions, offering no clues to her point of view as she passes from a close-up of waste eaten away by the earth, to a wide shot of a quarry, where only a single object betrays the scale: a pylon, whose fine metal lines reveal the immensity of the scenery that photography can only partially capture.

Laurence Cornet

Read the full text of this article on the French version of Le Journal.

Laura McPhee: Desert Chronicle
Until April 13th, 2013
Galerie Bonni Benrubi
41 East 57th Street 13th Floor

New York, NY 10022
USA

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