After ‘Numb’ & ‘Captured’ this will be my third series this year that has a strong focus on cold temperatures, ice & abstract art found in nature. The idea of ‘The Numb Series’ was to document the landscape around a frozen waterfall & in ‘The Captured Series’ I focused on organic shapes of air being captured in ice. Compared to the past two series, I am focusing more on the geometric structures on frozen surfaces in this series.
At the beginning of February a wave of cold weather hit Germany with temperatures as low as -20 °C. Over the course of several days any stretch of water in Southern Bavaria started to freeze & I knew it was my chance to realize the idea of this project. In my photographic work I am often looking for details, texture or patterns in nature that represent some form of beauty or aesthetic. I believe that this beauty can be found anywhere around us in nature. We just have to open our eyes, be attentive & search for it. This time I wanted to find the hidden beauty in fractals of icy surfaces.
I spent three consecutive days in various gorges & ravines in Southern Bavaria looking for interesting ice structures close to streams of water. Spending time outside from morning till the evening definitely had its challenges with an average outside temperature of -5 °C. Especially because I was not moving too much during the production of each single image.
To get really close to the ice structures I used a macro lens that enabled me with a 1:1 magnification of the structures I was photographing. The use of a macro lens made it possible to get really close to the subject & enhance the abstract characteristics of the ice textures. Every image of this series is focus-stacked & consists of 20-50 single images. Due to the shallow depth of field when photographing at 1:1 magnification I had to take several exposures of each image at different levels of depth. These images were then merged together by an algorithm of a software in post production to achieve a pin sharp & detailed image.
When we look closely. A whole new world unfolds. Full of art.
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Germany / 2021