Helen Saunders
I’m interested in the power of digital photography to transform our everyday surroundings, and use photographic collage to create landscapes that border fantasy and reality. My focus is the changing environment, revealed in the interaction between man and nature and old and new. I am drawn to places undergoing transition. Leicester for example contains industrial structures, which are being replaced with new buildings for cultural and commercial purposes, and so the identity of the city is changing, evident in the contrasting layers of architecture.
CONSTRUCTED LANDSCAPES
My work takes the form of photographic collages, which explore the layers in the urban environment. The viewpoints are taken from places often missed in everyday life such as scrap yards and construction sites, the in-between points which reveal the process of civilization. By digitally dissecting and re-constructing the landscape, I explore the history and shifts in the landscape. My chosen subjects are therefore places in flux. Leicester for example contains industrial structures, which are being replaced with new buildings for cultural and commercial purposes, and so the identity of the city is changing, evident in the contrasting layers of architecture. I aim to create surreal landscapes that blur the boundaries between real and fantasy. The method of re-arranging reality references the painted landscape, which has historically been used as a means of re-framing the sublime power of nature, something now true of many man-made constructs. I take inspiration from this idealised and often romanticised vision of the world, but aim to create a tension between the photographic realism and surface beauty of the image. This is an ongoing series of work which began 2008.
UKYA PROJECTS:
National Biennale: Derby 2010
