Topographies of Fragility by Ingrid Weyland

Issue 151

Since my first projects, even when I incorporated portraits in my narratives, my interest revolved around  nature as an emotional haven, a place for connection. 

My intention has always been to deeply experience spaces and convey a sense of silence through my  imagery, a time for contemplation and introspection. 

I have traveled from the south of Argentina to Greenland's ice sheet in search of landscapes with a particular  mood and beauty, unspoiled landscapes, almost surreal. The presence of man seems not to exist. They  appear to be places that have never been inhabited, solitary, where the immensity reveals itself, and where I  have lived experiences of intimate connection with this isolated nature, almost like a private sanctuary. 

It was in those moments, where it became clear that nature is also vulnerable, fragile. It is perhaps because of  this feeling that, back home, I devised a strategy to try to return the gesture to nature. As a tribute, and  possible farewell, to my emotional haven, which has experienced severe environmental degradation, and  through the materiality of the printed image, I intend to highlight the violent damage they suffer,  manipulating and twisting my own personal landscapes. In these landscapes that at first glance seem so  pristine and immaculate, we then notice their decline, their deterioration, which becomes a wake-up call, a  way of questioning our relationship with the natural world. 

I am increasingly interested in the concept of Expanded Photography, where photography merges with other  areas of the visual arts, such as collage or different types of manual interventions. Pure photography was no  longer enough to translate my experiences and concerns. 

My process begins with the registration of my experiences in nature and continues with a meticulous  selection of which landscapes from my archive of images will be subjected to experimentation and  intervention and is completed with a new registration or photographic shot. 

In the series "Topographies of Fragility," I alter, and perform violent gestures on the image of the landscape  chosen. This operation on the printed photographic paper allows me to reflect on the permanent and  irreversible traces of my actions, in a poetic allusion to our relationship with our planet. 

My current work is not meant to be documentation about specific environmental problems of the  photographed spaces, but rather a metaphor of the fragility of nature, as well as of human fragility itself, and  my intention is to incite in the viewer a sense of self-reflection, to raise awareness and make my small  contribution, so that we humans can begin to think of a world in harmony with nature and understand that we  are part of an alliance, nature, and humans, together. 

It is said that a crumpled piece of paper can never regain its original shape; the trace persists. In the same  way, nature which is disrespectfully invaded is forever broken, and many times unrecoverable. 

Ingrid Weyland lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
www.ingridweyland.com.ar | @ingridwey