Philipp Schaerer

The work subsumed under the heading “Paysages numériques” addresses the imaging and projection method of photography. By deconstructing the photographic material, this work attempts to create a more fleeting, picturesque and atmospheric likeness of reality. It is an attempt to disassemble the photographic image into surfaces with the absence of any reference to depth and sculptural modeling to create a picture composition that may exhibit more unity and homogeneity.

A series of photographed nature scenes serves as case study. The work experiments with an additional plane of projection, inserted between the eye and the image. The type of incline and the surface properties of the inserted plane cause the motif to dissolve. A “third” entity thus emerges between the image of reality and the abstract depiction. The photographic image becomes a webbing, a sort of light-color-surface-texture, the original motif of which can only be partially deciphered.

The work scrutinizes the claims to reality of light-projected images, including the photographic image itself. No post-image editing was used to create the images, which are based mainly on the principle of the refraction of light.