Ambient Pressure

BACKGROUND Landscape photography is not ideologically neutral, although traditionally it has been presented as such. Liz Wells’s argument that “the frame as a device in landscape photography begs interrogation” is an influence on the creative approach and research methods of “Ambient Pressure”. This creative research seeks to draw attention to and critique the framing of nature — its representation and idealisation — in landscape photography through experimental material interventions. CONTRIBUTION “Ambient Pressure” is a series of photographic prints that problematises landscape photography through physical modifications of conventional nature imagery. The artworks were formed through analogue and digital interventions in which negatives and prints were manipulated by acts such as cutting, burning, folding, marking, and obstructing. By physically disrupting the pictorial conventions of landscape photography, they are no longer can be viewed as neutral "windows" onto an environment and instead they point to evidence that photographs are constructions. The methods used literally and figuratively rupture the framing device by drawing attention to its existence, challenging the conventions of landscape photography. SIGNIFICANCE “Ambient Pressure” was selected for a solo show during the 2022 Belfast Photo Festival by a jury of significant photographic curators including Shana Lopes, Assistant Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Marta Weiss, Senior Curator of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The festival attracted upwards of 100,000 visitors. Images from the project have also been exhibited in international group exhibitions including the Aperture Foundation (USA), Encontros da Imagem festival (Portugal), Athens Photo Festival (Greece), and Copenhagen Photo Festival (Denmark). Articles featuring the project were published in online magazines LensCulture and Lomo Photography.