#georg aerni

[timetonothing]

Georg Aerni

Avenue des Ternes II, 1995, Baryt-Prints, 18 Teile/parts, je/each 44.4x30.4cm, 44.4x246.7cm    

[rianc]

El jardín los ciclopes - Georg Aerni 

[archaic-mag]

Insights by Georg Aerni more: http://www.archaic-mag.com/?p=17306&preview=true

[archaic-mag]

Partitions by Georg Aerni more: http://www.archaic-mag.com/?p=16031&preview=true

[144c]

Georg Aerni: TV Time, 1999

[hadrianestou]

Georg Aerni - Sites & Signs, 2011

[hadrianestou]

Georg Aerni

[ztdavis]

Georg Aerni's Surreal Cities

© Georg Aerni "# 1821-1, Aberdeen, 2000", from his series Slopes & Houses

I'm pretty sure but not entirely sure Georg Aerni's photographs are documents of real landscapes and not constructions of his imagination assembled into collages. Pretty sure. Not entirely sure. I've spent a good part of my afternoon looking at Aerni's wonderful images and I'm still not entirely sure either way.

© Georg Aerni, "# 1533-1, Happy Valley, 1999", from his series TV Time

Aerni does a wonderful job in his landscapes of confusing us. So monumental are the scenes but so tightly composed are the shots that it is hard to read them. What is near? What is far? In many of the photos, especially the Slopes and Houses series, the scene is cropped enough that we've lost all context of setting and the surrounding landscape.

© Georg Aerni, "# 1526-7, Tsz Wan Shan, 1999", from his series Slopes & Houses

I'm curious as to how and why this works. How our brains fail to comprehend these images. Intuitively, it would seem that by focusing on our part of a scene we would be able to better understand that aspect of the landscape, yet the opposite is happening here. I think the problem is that these photos are of places so large that even when we focus in on a particular aspect they are still just on the edge of comprehension. The scenes are so complex that they refuse simplification.