Buritaca
Meeting of waters of the Sierra Nevada and the Caribbean Ocean
Atlas of the Andes
2007 - 2018 (Ongoing project)
“What matters more than anything else is our native soil. Our lives are nothing but the country which we inherit".
Simón Bolívar
Atlas of the Andes is shaped by my experiences in the landscape and reflections regarding how man relates with his natural milieu, either as an observer, an inhabitant or an agent of transformation. Its aim is to become a visual, personal atlas of the botanical, geological and climatic diversity of the northern Andes mountain range. I intend to represent the beauty of nature's vastness as well as the fragility of the infinitesimal particles that compose it. By simultaneously portraying these opposites, my work renders the complex and indivisible connections between the grandiose and the miniscule.
These works translate experiences arising from both memory and observation, approaching landscape representation as an inherently subjective practice closely connected to the human condition. Their construction process borrows pictorial strategies used throughout the history of art and address nature through a romantic gaze in the search of the sublime. The photographic medium is simultaneously used as a device to collect and register the biological and mineral components that constitute landscape in order to present nature to the viewer as objectively as possible. These strategies allow my work to function both as an agent for landscape contemplation as well as a vehicle to visualize its physical components.
Embracing the magnificence as well as understanding the complexity of its natural environment is essential for any society willing to strengthen its identity and understand itself as a nation. Acknowledging and comprehending the indivisibility with its vulnerable environment is vital for its continuity.
C. E.