Max Marshall
Friday, 6 January 2012
Work from Fabulous Views.
“In the series Fabulous Views, I examine through photography how we define nature, and how that idea of nature coexists with human interaction. Traditional depictions of the wild consist of desolate areas, lush trees, waterfalls without a human presence. However, this notion is not the most pervasive in contemporary culture. I construct photographs to explore the exoticized, clichéd, and synthetic devices which our civilization has created to represent nature.
In the photograph, Defense Mechanism a fawn is found crouching as if to hide in the middle of a paved road. The fawn’s attempt to conceal itself in its surroundings has been created by centuries of innate survival strategies but is now rendered useless in this concrete displacement.
The varied methodologies in the series Fabulous Views range from a still life composition of Home Depot tropical house plants and a wild-caught lobster; to an apartment’s advertisement banner displayed over a forest valley which reads, “Fabulous Views 306-2000.” Through these varied modes of depiction, the photographs begin to imply what we as a society value and the strategies of portraying the natural versus artificial or the authentic versus inauthentic. Fabulous Views reflects the human view on nature as we digest it within our own contemporary culture.” – Max Marshall