honorable mention
Robert Claus united states
title
Stevens Creek Reservoir
Initial forays stuck to the shores of the lake, but as the drought took hold, I was able to descend right down to the lakebed. Here, new perspectives opened up, and detritus from our single-use society came to light. It not only raised some uncomfortable questions in the process, but also revealed a beauty that surprised me. A discarded tire here, or an abandoned sneaker there invited me to pause a while, consider what lay before me, and frame up a composition.
By restricting myself to shooting only with a basic smartphone, and working only in black and white, I wanted to create a cohesive visual language that could tell the reservoir’s story through both details, and wider shots. The wide-angle lens demanded that every pictorial element was just so—a photograph’s background had to relate clearly to the subject in the foreground; it had to add to the narrative, not distract from it.
Today, thanks to a culture of instant gratification and visual over-saturation, our attention spans have eroded almost completely. We discard images almost as soon as we see them; they are the litter our digital lives, like the junk at the bottom of the lake. As a counter-proposal, these photographs are meant to offer an immersive, reductionist experience that invites viewers to stop, and engage with what they see—like I did, when I shot them—if only for a moment.
Attending a major retrospective of David Hockney in 2014 inspired him to return to his childhood love of photography. A self-taught artist, he has since studied under Gina Militia, and taken workshops and classes from Ed Kashi, Neal Menschel (both at Stanford), and Joel Grimes (remote).
He tends to draw on still life for his subjects, but has also ventured into portraiture and landscapes. Now looking to gain wider exposure, he has produced several book-length curated projects that range from theater work to abstract still-life composition.
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entry description
Shot over three winters, these photographs explore how a local reservoir revealed unexpected details about itself—and us—as water levels dropped over the years. The setting had caught my eye on the way to work, and I was intrigued by the idea of documenting a particular location over a longer period of time.Initial forays stuck to the shores of the lake, but as the drought took hold, I was able to descend right down to the lakebed. Here, new perspectives opened up, and detritus from our single-use society came to light. It not only raised some uncomfortable questions in the process, but also revealed a beauty that surprised me. A discarded tire here, or an abandoned sneaker there invited me to pause a while, consider what lay before me, and frame up a composition.
By restricting myself to shooting only with a basic smartphone, and working only in black and white, I wanted to create a cohesive visual language that could tell the reservoir’s story through both details, and wider shots. The wide-angle lens demanded that every pictorial element was just so—a photograph’s background had to relate clearly to the subject in the foreground; it had to add to the narrative, not distract from it.
Today, thanks to a culture of instant gratification and visual over-saturation, our attention spans have eroded almost completely. We discard images almost as soon as we see them; they are the litter our digital lives, like the junk at the bottom of the lake. As a counter-proposal, these photographs are meant to offer an immersive, reductionist experience that invites viewers to stop, and engage with what they see—like I did, when I shot them—if only for a moment.
about the photographer
An emerging photographer with a background in translation and music, Robert Claus has been exploring drawing, composition, and theater since an early age. Born in Germany, he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area after graduating from the University of London.Attending a major retrospective of David Hockney in 2014 inspired him to return to his childhood love of photography. A self-taught artist, he has since studied under Gina Militia, and taken workshops and classes from Ed Kashi, Neal Menschel (both at Stanford), and Joel Grimes (remote).
He tends to draw on still life for his subjects, but has also ventured into portraiture and landscapes. Now looking to gain wider exposure, he has produced several book-length curated projects that range from theater work to abstract still-life composition.
back to gallery
