I first started making Fiction Landscapes in 2010 after purchasing a large stack of photographs from the flea market and discovering I could draw a line through time using these discarded traces of the past. In 2012 I addressed memory and its relationship with objects in my Heirlooms body of work that takes a look at objects and their place in our lives emotionally due to their history and our associations with them.
The Fiction Landscapes are a continuation in my interest and memories, both secure and lost within objects. I crate them arranging banal photographs into new landscapes by aligning in such a way that the scene continues from photo to photo spanning wide geographic locations and decades.
The visual of how well the lands meet and continue also creates a dialog about how the land beneath our feet is connected to the land beneath our loved ones feet possibly thousands of miles away. I never incorporate personal photographs of mine or my families into the project as I want to maintain the concept of these works being monuments to lost memories. My knowledge or association with any photograph used would comprise the integrity of the series and its magic even if I were the only one who knew.
I hope you are reminded of these ideas next time you see a landscape photograph with no feature point or the next time you are deleting photographs from your camera that show a quiet hill or mountain side which you took hoping to capture the magic of that instance. The feeling that comes with seeing the majesty an expansive valley from above or the ache in our hearts we feel while staring in awe at an incredible sunrise or sunset is impossible to capture, though we will never stop trying.
More info: jfrede.com
