Weyland Raises Awareness On Environmental Issues Through Her Thought-Provoking Work.
The Argentinian photographer and artist, Ingrid Weyland, creates an arresting commentary on humankind’s abuses of nature through her work. Weyland provokes viewers to deeper thought on environmental issues through her unique method. Vigorously altering landscape photographs from her archives, Weyland then places the crumpled images on top of the same untouched image. She photographs the juxtaposing elements to create the final work, thus drawing a visual parallel between the pristine and the abused.
How did you become interested in photography? How did you get started taking pictures?
I’m a graphic designer, and art has always been a part of my life from the very beginning. I lived with my grandparents from my early teens, one was a sculptor and painter, and the other an architect. I grew up among colored pencils, art papers, blueprints, inks, clay… My passion for form, image, and composition came about thanks to them.
I was always interested in photography but, in Argentina at that time, it was not available as a university degree course. However, once I had established my own design studio, it felt quite natural that I would start to take courses in photography.
Initially, I was mostly a portrait photographer, where nature was always present in one way or another. Some time later, I was lucky enough to be able to travel, from the south of Argentina to Greenland’s ice sheet, in search of landscapes with a particular mood and beauty, unspoiled landscapes, almost surreal, where the immensity reveals itself, and where I have lived experiences of intimate connection. I have always been drawn to cold and icy places. I am drawn to landscapes that generate a feeling of emptiness. Strangely, this emptiness is fulfilling for me. I understood later in life that these landscapes had always been my safe haven. Nature is my refuge, a place where I can restore my energy, where I feel reborn.
Can you tell me a little bit about your project Topographies of Fragility? What is your aim with this work?
Iceland, with its intensity and abundance of color in its lava fields, glaciers, fjords and mountain peaks, has struck me as one of the most majestic places to photograph, it’s literally like visiting another planet. It makes me think of a pre-human era, a time of virgin nature.
It was after my third trip to Iceland that I was overwhelmed by the changes I saw since my first visit in 2015. It had become a tourist hot spot, and I noticed people failing to stick to local regulations, not respecting boundaries, and it started to show on the landscape.
Furthermore, having heard that there was not much time left for us humans to be able to witness the magnificence of gigantic icebergs, I set my mind to travel to Greenland, which I did in 2019. This exact moment determined my urgency to inspire change, and I sensed that just showing beautiful landscapes was not enough, I wanted to find a way to convey both beauty and decay at the same time, to remind us what we stand to lose to climate change.
How do you create your art? Can you give us some insight into your process?
Back home, I started thinking about the vulnerability of nature again, and began to work on enacting violent gestures on my landscape images, reshaping them until they became something altogether different. In the same way we humans alter and damage our environment with sometimes irreversible consequences. My current work doesn’t focus on specific local environmental issues, but rather serves as a metaphor for the fragility of nature, as well as the fragility of humanity itself. Images are very powerful and can stay in the mind of the viewer for many years. I think photographers have the power to plant a seed of thought that can blossom into change.
In this ongoing series, I alter and perform violent gestures on a landscape chosen among my archive of images from my travels. The outcome is crumpled images, which I then lay on top of the same untouched vista and rephotograph, drawing a parallel between my crumpled image and the way we humans treat nature as though it’s something disposable, to be discarded. This operation on the printed photographic paper allows me to reflect on the permanent and irreversible traces of my actions, in a poetic allusion to our relationship with our planet.
In “Topographies of Fragility” all the images have received the same treatment. It takes careful thought to decide which landscapes from my archive of images will be sacrificed because I feel that once I destroy one of my images, I cannot think of it again how it was before, it can never recover. I have a few images “on the side” that I love and want to preserve, I don’t dare alter them.
In all my pieces I experiment with different types of aggression, starting lightly and then applying more pressure, I print my main image in fine art and then print copies on different types of paper and using different methods of printing, as each paper reacts differently. It’s amazing to witness how paper resists at first, it fights back, it does not want to be destroyed, but at last, it has to give in. There is something very powerful in the fact that my own hands “perform” this damage on my own printed photographs of places of natural beauty.
I think photographers have the power to plant a seed of thought that can blossom into change.
Ingrid Weyland
What would you say your ultimate goal is in being a photographer?
Since I first started working on this series, I have been pleasantly surprised to read comments from people who have written to tell me how my images made them stop and think, and that they stuck in their minds afterwards. A couple of professors have written saying that they were inspired after seeing my work to put the method into practice in their classes: their students took sheets of paper and scrunched them up before trying to flatten them back again, observing how the lines remain and the folds cannot be undone. This later led to open discussions about our role on climate change. I found this very moving, as I never thought my work could have such an impact. This made me feel that I could maybe be of help, by reminding people of what we stand to lose if we don’t change.
My aim is to raise awareness about environmental issues by means of suggesting and provoking deeper thought. I steer away from crude representations of environmental damage and prefer to play with the metaphor of the fragility of paper to encourage the viewer to relate his or her own personal vulnerabilities to the landscape before their eyes.
Everything that has happened to me and my work over the last two years has been a blessing and I’m extremely grateful for it. I would very much like to continue working and have time to keep learning about our role in this planet and what we can still do to try to change an outcome that seems inevitable. For me learning is essential.
What do you enjoy most about your work?
I would say that traveling to new places, meeting people, connecting with the local sceneries, and learning about each country I visit, is what I enjoy the most.
Last year I was lucky enough to travel to Iguazú, which sits on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones, on commissioned work for Awasi Lodge, to capture the natural surroundings of the Atlantic Rainforest where Awasi Iguazu is located. They are committed to protecting their natural and cultural heritage through the conservation of their ecosystems, the reintroduction of native species and the implementation of concrete social initiatives.
Awasi is Carbon Neutral. They protect 340 hectares of native woodland in Iguazú and Patagonia. These areas absorb over 10,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. This amount is greater than the emissions generated by the three lodges they own, including the travel emissions of their guests.
Patagonia and Greenland both qualify as “last frontier” territories, and this is a compelling connection for me personally. Although I have not yet visited Antarctica, which has been my dream for the last years, the Arctic and Antarctic areas play key roles in the future of climate change, as they both help keep our planet’s climate in balance.
Besides your camera, what do you always bring into the field with you?
I always try to have bits of dark chocolate and almonds with me when I travel for work, they can keep me going all day, as when I’m shooting I’m generally not interested in stopping for lunch, I don’t want to miss a second, hours slip by so fast when I’m looking through my camera!
Have you used Picter before?
Yes! Usually, applying for open calls can take quite a lot of time; with Picter Contests you already have your submissions and images organized in one place, and bio and statement easily available, it’s so much more efficient and convenient!
