honorable mention
Wendel Wirth united states
title
THIS IS THE PLACE
The sad reality is these incredible farmlands are disappearing. Three acres a minute, gone forever to urban sprawl and development. It’s not just a loss of lifestyles and rural communities; it’s a loss of our food security and an aesthetic that has shaped my own view of the world.
Each image in THIS IS THE PLACE has been photographed with a deadpan aesthetic and set inside a Polaroid inspired border (REMOVED_DUE_TO_COMPETITION_GUIDELINES._CAN_BE_SEEN_AT WENDELWIRTH.COM), allowing the essence of the Polaroid to imbue the photographs with emotion. Polaroids speak to nostalgia and travelogue; their essence is both fleeting and disposable, much like iconic farms on open land today. By using the state of the art quality of a medium format digital camera, I can blend opposing photographic processes: digital and Polaroid in a way that mirrors the disparate experience of form and structure against meaning and emotion.
Metaphors for life, farms are a symbol of sustainability. They are the relics of a generational commitment that we are losing at an alarming rate. THIS IS THE PLACE documents the vanishing of a landscape that once defined the fabric of our rural collective. My hope is that through these forms and shapes, shadows and light, the abstracted images defamiliarize this once common national backdrop, compelling a reconsideration of what is lost when we no longer have such visual corridors, these wide-open spaces, and historic connectivity.
Wendel received her Masters of Fine Art from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, graduating Magna Cum Laude and her Bachelor of Fine Art from Denison University.
For 18 years, prior to pursuing her MFA, Wendel worked as a commercial photographer, art director and product designer for ‘a tail we could wag’. She has studied photography at Parson’s School of Design, Maine Photographic Workshops (now Maine Media) and with the Friends of Photography. She has had the fortune of studying under Ruth Bernhard, Ralph Gibson and Hosoe Eikoh.
Originally from New York City and Chicago, she lives in the mountains of Ketchum (better known as Sun Valley), Idaho with her husband, daughter and two well loved dogs.
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entry description
Minimalist art must have been conceived while traveling through farmland. Mile marker after mile marker of elemental forms in rippled metal, wind ravaged and sun soaked wood; patterns throughout a linear landscape. In THIS IS THE PLACE, photographs work to transmute fading farmland structures into celebrated geometric forms of nuanced color and texture as they interact with a unique atmospheric quality of land and sky.The sad reality is these incredible farmlands are disappearing. Three acres a minute, gone forever to urban sprawl and development. It’s not just a loss of lifestyles and rural communities; it’s a loss of our food security and an aesthetic that has shaped my own view of the world.
Each image in THIS IS THE PLACE has been photographed with a deadpan aesthetic and set inside a Polaroid inspired border (REMOVED_DUE_TO_COMPETITION_GUIDELINES._CAN_BE_SEEN_AT WENDELWIRTH.COM), allowing the essence of the Polaroid to imbue the photographs with emotion. Polaroids speak to nostalgia and travelogue; their essence is both fleeting and disposable, much like iconic farms on open land today. By using the state of the art quality of a medium format digital camera, I can blend opposing photographic processes: digital and Polaroid in a way that mirrors the disparate experience of form and structure against meaning and emotion.
Metaphors for life, farms are a symbol of sustainability. They are the relics of a generational commitment that we are losing at an alarming rate. THIS IS THE PLACE documents the vanishing of a landscape that once defined the fabric of our rural collective. My hope is that through these forms and shapes, shadows and light, the abstracted images defamiliarize this once common national backdrop, compelling a reconsideration of what is lost when we no longer have such visual corridors, these wide-open spaces, and historic connectivity.
about the photographer
Wendel Wirth's most recent body of work, No Vacancy, was shortlisted for the 2017 Felix Schoeller Photo Award. In 2015, she was awarded a Fellowship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts. In November of 2013, Wendel received a Juror’s Merit Award at the Boise Art Museum Triennial exhibit. She is represented by Gilman Contemporary in Ketchum, Idaho and Dimmitt Contemporary Art in Houston.Wendel received her Masters of Fine Art from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, graduating Magna Cum Laude and her Bachelor of Fine Art from Denison University.
For 18 years, prior to pursuing her MFA, Wendel worked as a commercial photographer, art director and product designer for ‘a tail we could wag’. She has studied photography at Parson’s School of Design, Maine Photographic Workshops (now Maine Media) and with the Friends of Photography. She has had the fortune of studying under Ruth Bernhard, Ralph Gibson and Hosoe Eikoh.
Originally from New York City and Chicago, she lives in the mountains of Ketchum (better known as Sun Valley), Idaho with her husband, daughter and two well loved dogs.
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