honorable mention
ESTHER GARRISON spain
title
NO CONTENT
“No Content” is intentionally ambiguous, wanting the viewer to generate their own conclusions. It is an invitation to let the gaze generate emotions and ideas, to reconnect with feelings.
For me the images in “No Content” are a mix of emotions: it is emptiness, absences, peace, melancholy, longing, tranquility, loneliness, beauty, silence, death, rebirth. It is a search for peace that I cannot find in a world overloaded with information, where our behavior is dominated by algorithms; a world hyper communicated where the concept of community does not exist; a critic to a civilization that fosters an instrumental and utilitarian relationship of use and abuse of nature.
It is a world that is falling apart very subtly. It's not a war, it's not a pandemic, is a look at the decline of our civilization. Mists and dim lights that represent that little by little we are disappearing without realizing, perhaps because our minds are trapped in hyper constant activity.
“No Content” is my contradictory look at a future world apocalyptic without humanity, but at the same time a hope, a respite for the planet.
Her interest in documentary photography started in 2016, when through her job she witnessed the impact of extractive and energy industries on remote communities. She began to document photographically with her Fuji XT1, a legacy from her father.
Her gaze focuses on the harshness of the human condition in the face of environmental degradation and human rights abuses, always presented with a beautiful and careful aesthetic. A constant presence of loneliness in a hyperconnected world converges in her photographic career.
This resulted in award-winning projects such as: “Where? In Karaganda”, which documents the coal route in the interior of Kazakhstan and its effect on one of the most polluted cities on the planet: Temirtau. This project was a finalist in the ENAIRE 2023 Award.
“Transiberian to the Closed City” led her to win the PHotoEspaña Scholarship and turned into her first photobook. The project reflects a parallel between the current situation of the inhabitants of Russia's Closed Cities and the country's current state of isolation while questioning the definitions of freedom and the concepts of corporate responsibility.
In 2024 she started the project “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, the result of a trip to Washington where she realized that Trump's resurgence was real. Architecture becomes a mute witness to the disintegration of democratic institutions. A narrative where values and principles blur, submerging us in a sea of uncertainty.
Garrison defines herself as “a photographer of different registers and interests, from the artistic to the street, or the landscape to the documentary. Emotions direct my impulse to document or capture the decisive moment. It is a tireless search for evocation"
back to gallery
entry description
“No Content” is a call to stillness, even if it is brief, to pause and reflection. It is a challenge to the viewer to let his gaze rest on the same object for more than 47 seconds (currently the average capacity of attention of an adult, compared to 2 ½ minutes in 2004), to flee the multitasking, from the overload of information and images to which we are constantly subjected, to let the mind float and wander. Get lost in a white space, on an infinite horizon.“No Content” is intentionally ambiguous, wanting the viewer to generate their own conclusions. It is an invitation to let the gaze generate emotions and ideas, to reconnect with feelings.
For me the images in “No Content” are a mix of emotions: it is emptiness, absences, peace, melancholy, longing, tranquility, loneliness, beauty, silence, death, rebirth. It is a search for peace that I cannot find in a world overloaded with information, where our behavior is dominated by algorithms; a world hyper communicated where the concept of community does not exist; a critic to a civilization that fosters an instrumental and utilitarian relationship of use and abuse of nature.
It is a world that is falling apart very subtly. It's not a war, it's not a pandemic, is a look at the decline of our civilization. Mists and dim lights that represent that little by little we are disappearing without realizing, perhaps because our minds are trapped in hyper constant activity.
“No Content” is my contradictory look at a future world apocalyptic without humanity, but at the same time a hope, a respite for the planet.
about the photographer
Located between Chinchón (Madrid) and Stockholm, Esther Garrison is a sustainability professional and photographer focused on documenting the relationship between people and their environment, whether natural or urban, past or future.Her interest in documentary photography started in 2016, when through her job she witnessed the impact of extractive and energy industries on remote communities. She began to document photographically with her Fuji XT1, a legacy from her father.
Her gaze focuses on the harshness of the human condition in the face of environmental degradation and human rights abuses, always presented with a beautiful and careful aesthetic. A constant presence of loneliness in a hyperconnected world converges in her photographic career.
This resulted in award-winning projects such as: “Where? In Karaganda”, which documents the coal route in the interior of Kazakhstan and its effect on one of the most polluted cities on the planet: Temirtau. This project was a finalist in the ENAIRE 2023 Award.
“Transiberian to the Closed City” led her to win the PHotoEspaña Scholarship and turned into her first photobook. The project reflects a parallel between the current situation of the inhabitants of Russia's Closed Cities and the country's current state of isolation while questioning the definitions of freedom and the concepts of corporate responsibility.
In 2024 she started the project “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, the result of a trip to Washington where she realized that Trump's resurgence was real. Architecture becomes a mute witness to the disintegration of democratic institutions. A narrative where values and principles blur, submerging us in a sea of uncertainty.
Garrison defines herself as “a photographer of different registers and interests, from the artistic to the street, or the landscape to the documentary. Emotions direct my impulse to document or capture the decisive moment. It is a tireless search for evocation"
back to gallery