Artist's Statement - Seemingly Seamless

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Seemingly Seamless is a new body of panoramic works that explore issues of the sublime in landscape whilst also examining our relationship to the land.

All the works in this exhibition are seemingly seamless - at first glance they have the appearance of conventional single-shot photographs. Initially, these works seem almost devoid of any human presence, reflecting the Western tradition of paintings and photographs of sublime landscapes. However, each work is a time-based construct, and all have some human presence - either subtle or overt.

All of the images have been constructed using multiple 35mm digital photographs. On average 20-30 individual photographs have been used to construct each panoramic work. After shooting the scene, the 20-30 photographs have been "stitched" together digitally to create each individual work, and have then been outputted onto archival photographic papers using the latest digital technology.

The process for photographing each work is heavily time-based, where the images used to construct each panorama have often been taken over a considerable length of time. The process used to then build and construct each panoramic work is also heavily time-based.

There are many dualities present in making these works. The depiction of the sublime landscape has historically rested in the domain of the male artist, whilst for me the fine digital "stitching" process is reminiscent of traditional craft-based activities undertaken by women artists historically.

Lines and circles are also important references in these works. The photographs have either been shot from a single fixed position within the landscape creating a single linear image that encircles in excess of 360 degrees (see Awaroa Inlet); or they have been shot along the length of a line whilst walking through the landscape and shooting in a fixed direction towards the horizon (see Cloudscape Walk).

Whilst on the surface these works appear very still, the process of encircling or walking through a landscape reflects human activity. In addition to this, all the works contain some visible human presence in the form of footprints in the sand, a human shadow marking full-circle, or even the human figure itself placed centrally.

The latter "figure in the landscape" type works make direct reference to Caspar David Friedrich's 19th Century Romanticism paintings. Friedrich used the central figure to allow the viewer "access" into his landscape paintings - where the viewers could imagine themselves in the place of the figure looking out. The question I seek to pose is, with my back turned away from the viewer, is it possible to get in? Am I allowing you into these landscapes? Whose landscapes are they anyway?

The objective of these works is not to "spot the joins" (i.e., where the images have been digitally stitched), but to consider the sheer majesty of a vast continuous landscape and our relationship to this wonderful and beautiful land.

Cheryl Reynolds, 2002