Saint Paul Sightseeing

The French photographer Eugene Atget (1857-1927) photographed the overlooked, the unspectacular, the edges and corners of Paris, France. This project is an attempt to follow in Atget’s footsteps, but this time the city is Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Saint Paul Sightseeing is about those places that we pass by, but never seem to pay any attention to. It’s a landscape that exists, but too commonplace to warrant much affection. As an artist, I respond to marginal places that have been left out or simply neglected, spaces where time shows its effects in numerous patterns.

Minnesota Structures

Minnesota Structures consists of photographs of buildings found in small towns and signs spotted along rural highways throughout northwestern and central Minnesota. For this project I wanted to explore the form and color of an architecture that is typical for the area.

I am intrigued by how we have shaped our surroundings and the way we put our stamp on the landscape. These buildings and signs do not distinguish themselves by having elaborate ornaments, but they have a simple and honest elegance that intrigues me. Some are bold and colorful, whereas others are more subdued.

Roots

The images in this series are about form, or more specifically; the strange and twisted structures of roots. Man-made structures such as buildings and bridges have a carefully planned and organized shape and function, and the architecture will usually adhere to a certain taste of what is aesthetically acceptable at a given time in history.

Shapes of nature show little concern for whether it is visually pleasing or not. Nature just is, it does what it deems necessary to survive. I find the sometimes bizarre forms in nature to be endlessly fascinating. It creates twists and turns that it impossible to comprehend and forms that you could never have imagined. Shapes in nature is equally strange and captivating.