"We create works in response to the ever-bleakening relationship linking humans, technology, and nature." Would viewers be able to pick up on this element without knowing this? I believe so. Not necessarily to the exact idea as that, but there is a certain element to their photos and subject matter that one picks up when seeing their works. They have several different collections to look through but there is a constant element maintaing throughout, whether it be the message or their unique "style."
"Their newest series, Gautier’s Dream, marks a return to b&w imagery
that reveals their love of opera, dance and cinema. Inspired by French
artist, writer and critic, Théophile Gautier, these new works explore
dramas that unfold in front of an audience and behind the velvet
curtain. Their Everyman, once obsessed with saving the earth, now
breathes in the earth, his face inhabited by sunflowers and daffodils
(The Lover); becomes a collector of moths/butterflies by listening to
them (Thief of Paris); and turns into a willing puppet, dressed in a top
hat, awaiting his grand entrance (Apparition of Mallarmé)."
With a new approach to photography this semester and attempting to freshen things up and practice techniques and ideas I am not familiar with/explored, looking at their work, I can appreciate more their attention to detail and the scene they are setting up. I remember seeing them at the Artist Talk at Trinity 4University earlier in the year and their use of surreal colors and overall "look" of their photographs were amazing. Some have simple subject matter at first glance, but after you stop to look at it you are pulled in by their ingenuity in the subject matter and the method they present it in. Their works have an "aged" feel to them in most of their collections, but more so in their "Architect's Brother" series.
In
the piece "The Source" a man is seen coming out of the ground/standing
in a hole with his back turned towards the viewer and on his head is
what appears to be a bush/tree of some sort. Not in a pot but instead
just free formed with the roots falling every which way off his head and
in his hands he is holding a glass of water-pouring onto his head and
roots.
I was going to address another photo in another collection of theirs pertaining to trees coming out of the subjects forearms but came across "Wound" in their Gray Dawn series. Extremely compelling- the photograph is that of a tree limb stretching across the piece and in the middle is a bandage around the tree. It looks as if the tree itself has been hurt and is bleeding from the wound into a glass that has been tied to the branch to collect the blood. Their delivery of the photo in the means of their editing the photo/developing the piece is so successful in making the content a lot stronger than if say it were to be printed onto a clean glossy white piece of paper
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