Exit Eden

Exit Eden No. 6
Doug Fogelson

I'm dealing with a myriad of feelings about loss and climate change in Exit Eden, some of which are in conflict with established ideas of faith or beauty. In this body of work I photograph lush natural areas and then selectively bleach away layers of the film's emulsion after it has been processed. The removal of the full color image takes away the film's yellow layer first, magenta layer second, and then cyan layer to leave a range of stunning blue hues. Partially removing the image relates to the state of our bedraggled resources and hints at an ontological argument about creative and destructive forces. I am considering our planet as an "Edenic" paradise and questioning humanity at the current state of our development.

Considering the transformative effects that climate change and improper fishing, farming, or mining/extraction causes our natural environment and how that acts upon our psyche through the abstraction of landscape photography is helpful as I regard my own transience. It reminds me that humans are not separate from nature. Perhaps most significantly I am aware that future generations will be the most affected by the lack of stewardship citizens, governments, religious leaders and corporations display now.

With that in mind it is still my desire to create works of lasting interest both visually and intellectually. The pieces in Exit Eden can be considered as much tableaux to the qualities of analog photographic materials as they can be meditations on lush nature, entropy or oblivion. For as we were not the original form of life on this planet we will surely not be the last.

Exit Eden is coordinated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, who has presented solely Chicago-themed exhibits at the City Gallery since 1999. Exit Eden will be at the City Gallery at the Historic Water Tower, 806 N. Michigan Avenue, will be on display through September 23, 2012.

View images from Exit Eden.

Contributor: Doug Fogelson, Artist