remanoir
by Martyna Maz
remanoir
remanoir remnants
with special thanks to Robert Andrew Mercer
Let photography save crumbling ruins from oblivion, books, engravings, and manuscripts, the prey of time, all those precious things, vowed to dissolution, which crave a place in the archives of our memories; in all these things, photography will deserve our thanks and applause. But if once it be allowed to impinge on the sphere of the intangible and the imaginary, on anything that has value solely because man adds something to it from his soul, then woe betide us! Charles Baudelaire
‘The Salon of 1859’ translated by P.E. Charvet
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Perhaps artists didn’t think much of photography at the time of its
conception, but over the years, and through scientific experimentations, it has become a solar phenomenon. To capture something invisible, like light and its wavelengths, requires one to be sensitive to their own imagination and their own unique perspective.
When we make and share our personal work we accept our own existence
and hope it will be understood by others. When art makes us feel it enriches our capacity to relate to one another.
My work is my language. The choice of the camera reflects my intentions,
the final images my impressions. I feel humbled by the spaces around me, the vastness of the environments envelope me as I embrace the freedom and the power of creation. When I focus through the lens, I am searching for answers to questions driven by human fears and desires.
‘Remanoir’ is a photographic exploration across a few of the many
disused quarries around central Scotland. With the use of the infra-red sensitive medium I wanted to allow the viewer to see the landscapes as otherworldly, inviting questions about what is familiar to the eye. This way we can focus on observing the transformations in the spaces abandoned by man. Natural arenas where the remnants of our civilisation metamorphose into new landscapes, reminding us of our small part in the history of this planet.
One might argue nature is unstable and unpredictable, but what I see is
the power that has been shaping our world since the beginning of time. It created life and the environment in which to thrive; conversely, it can also destroy. The transformations, the seasons we get to observe, are the cycles of life that through their variety create a balance of time and light. And that is where nature and photography meet.
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photography and design by Martyna Maz
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