Category: landscape

Reuben Wu, “Lux Noctis” Series

Reuben Wu, “Lux Noctis” Series

For his ongoing series Lux Noctis, Reuben Wu, the Chicago-based photographer, utilizes modified drones as aerial light sources, illuminating obscure landscapes in a way that makes each appear new and unexplored.

The light from his GPS-enabled drones create a halo effect around some of the presented cliffs and crests when photographed using a long exposure. An elegant circle of light traces the flight of the drone, leaving a mark only perceptible in the resulting photograph.

“I see it as a kind of ‘zero trace’ version of land art where the environment remains untouched by the artist, and at the same time is presented in a sublime way which speaks to 19th century Romantic painting and science and fictional imagery.” – Reuben Wu

The Stand

Photographer Unknown, (The Stand)

“There was a small stand of trees nearby, and from it you could hear the mechanical cry of a bird that sounded as if it were winding a spring. We called it the wind-up bird. Kumiko gave it the name. We didn’t know what it was really called or what it looked like, but that didn’t bother the wind-up bird. Every day it would come to the stand of trees in our neighborhood and wind the spring of our quiet little world.”

-Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Fong Qi Wei

Fong Qi Wei, Gifs from His Series “Time is a Dimension”

Fong Qi Wei is an photographer and computer graphic artist based in Singapore.

“For me, Time in Motion adds more questions about what time is, compared to Time Is a Dimension. Is this how simultaneous instances of time can be perceived coherently? Are the ‘time tunnel’ GIFs showing light being slowed down? Who knew time could be so trippy?”- Fong Qi Wei

Martin Zalba

Photography by Martin Zalba

Both a classical music composer and a renowned photographer, Spanish artist Martin Zalba Ibanez merges his experience in these mediums to create stunning photographs that depict breathtaking views and yet so much more. The influence of music drives his compositions, as he strives for harmony of colour, rhythm of perspective, melody of framing, orchestration of processing, and the counterpoints of shadow and light. His work shows us magical vistas, seeking continuously for the soul of light, the sound of shadows, the majesty of colours.

Yang Yongliang

Digital Photographic Artwork of Yang Yongliang

Yang Yongliang, a young artist from China, combines traditional Chinese Shan Shui (literally, mountain water) art with digital techniques to create “ghost landscapes,” which offer a dreamy techno vision of man and his environment. While the videos and pictures have a striking sense of harmony, they are also somehow unsettling. Industrial images, pollution, and waste have replaced the traditional country idyll.

“The city is the place where I live, a space that evolves with me and which contains my memories. A mirage or ghost-city is the environment towards which I reach out, but it only exists in my imagination. The water of the mountain (the landscape) suggests the imitation of the traditional art forms of my childhood, which have gradually disappeared as the city and I have evolved.

The birth of the Ghost Landscape is not an accident. The city, the landscape – I love them and hate them at the same time. If I love the city for its familiarity, I hate it even more for the staggering speed at which it grows and engulfs the environment. If I like traditional Chinese art for its depth and inclusiveness, I hate its retrogressive attitude. The ancients expressed their sentiments and appreciation of nature through landscape painting. As for me, I use my own landscape to criticize reality as I perceive it.”- Yang Yongliang

The Umshiang Double Decker Bridge

The Umshiang Double Decker Bridge

In Cherrapunji, Meghalaya, man has befriended nature and cajoled it into bending to his ways. People build bridges, but the Khasis of Meghalaya grow bridges. Ficus Elastica or the Rubber Tree produces strong secondary roots from their trunks. These  have been trained to grow in a particular direction using betel-nut trunks, forming sturdy, living bridges over decades. Some of these bridges are more than a hundred feet long. The Umshiang Double Decker Bridge is truly one of a kind in the entire world.