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JEAN-MARC BUSTAMANTE |
This large-scale photograph by French artist, Jean-Marc Bustamante is one of a series of twelve color prints of lakes in Switzerland, which the artist created in 2000. Shot on eight-by-ten inch negatives, the final print is almost eight feet high and six feet wide. The series is titled simply "L.P.," meaning either lake’s photographs, lost paradise, or long playing. This work is the third in the series, each of which contains an unnamed Swiss lake embedded in the center of the composition.
The lake is visible through the vegetation in the foreground where a large tree trunk, obviously the victim of human destruction, occupies the center of the composition. In fact, a full half of the picture is devoted to tangled vegetation, chopped down trees, and remnants of a wire fence. This is hardly a typical picturesque postcard view of Switzerland, and the juxtaposition suggests the way human habitation taints the natural environment. However, Bustamante’s intention is to create photographs that do not have a preconceived meaning. By taking pictures of the uninteresting and banal, in compositions that draw on the conventions of art history or commercial and documentary photography, he is attempting to make what he calls "art without qualities." Carefully composed with multiple focal points, Bustamante’s photographs invite the viewer to look at and interpret them for him or herself. His work is often perplexing to people who prefer art that has a clearly stated message, but as one critic noted, viewers who experience this type of frustration with Bustamante’s work tend to be having exactly the experience he wants to produce. "My aim is to make the viewer become aware of his or her responsibility in what he or she is looking at."
- Jennifer Bayles, Educator for Special Projects