Landscape photography will be an important focus of the new international Arts and Nature Centre at the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire.
Following the exhibition of work by German photographer Andreas Gursky, and coinciding with the Michel Séméniako exhibition, Love Letters from Fireflies, the Château Gallery presents 13 large-scale prints by the American activist photographer Alex MacLean from 12 September 2008 to 31 January 2009. All the photographs appear in MacLean's new book, OVER, The American Landscape at the Tipping Point (due out November 2008, Abrams).
Alex MacLean is, alongside Swiss photographer Georg Gerster and Frenchman Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a world-renowned practitioner of artistic, scientific and documentary aerial photography.
A trained architect and urban planner, his work is almost exclusively a description of the North-American landscape which he "ploughs" year after year, alone in his airplane from where he documents the history and development of the lands he photographs and the architectural and environmental dangers which threaten them.
Exhibits
Signal, Arizona
Scattered clouds above north-western Arizona scrub desert. Clouds usually just pass over this region, with rainfall averaging a mere 7.5 inches a year.
Phoenix, Arizona (photo available to the press)
Smog settles over the hills north of downtown Phoenix. In the Phoenix metropolitan area, the ground heats up during the day to produce thermal inversion, a phenomenon that captures rising particulates and forms what is known locally as the "brown cloud". Smog has a harmful effect on people who already suffer respiratory problems, while continued suburban growth contributes to the decline in air quality.
Middlebury, Vermont
Field burning after harvest helps control harmful insects and crop disease, but the impact on air quality makes this a controversial practice.
Plaquemine County, Louisiana
Canal dredging in the Mississippi delta gives access to oil platforms but the rapid disappearance of wetlands in the area is a direct result of infiltrating salt water that enters the gulf via these canals.
Santa Rosa Island, Florida
Wind and violent storms have partially buried this coast road in sand, cutting off all access. This dynamic landscape is continually reshaped by tides and hurricanes.
Lake Havasu City, Arizona
Recreational trailers spill out of the hills near Lake Havasu.
Congress, Arizona
This mixed-housing project, intended for both mobile homes and permanent housing, sits in the middle of the desert. The development integrates all the necessary public services into its community. There is a small shopping centre 5 miles away while the nearest town, Phoenix, is some 60 miles away.
Buckeye, Arizona
Stones and aggregates are sorted and stored to be used for "dry" gardening, which has a low environmental impact.
Welsh, Louisiana
Before rice is planted, the fields are flooded with elevated groundwater. After saturation and sowing, the water level must be maintained for the rice to grow. This process, known as wet-seeding, is extremely water-intensive and costly. The flooded land also provides the ideal environment for methane production, a major greenhouse gas that is almost 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Florence, Arizona (photo available to the press)
In Arizona's arid climate, irrigating these lush fields uses up over half the State's total water resources.
Colorado River, Devil's Elbow, Needles, California
A dried-up tributary of the Colorado river. Hydrologists predict that the Colorado river flow will decrease significantly over the coming decades and that reservoirs will be empty by about 2020.
Boulder City, Nevada
Golf courses in the Las Vegas metropolitan area account for 5% of the region's water consumption. Pictured here is part of the 71-hole Cascata golf course. Conscious of this incongruous position, the developers have taken steps to save 60 million gallons of water per year by improving turf aeration and replacing some areas of rye grass with Bermuda grass, which needs less water.
Maurepas, Louisiana (photo available to the press)
This area, which was once completely covered in cypress forests, still bears the scars of the channels that transported the felled trees.
Following the exhibition of work by German photographer Andreas Gursky, and coinciding with the Michel Séméniako exhibition, Love Letters from Fireflies, the Château Gallery presents 13 large-scale prints by the American activist photographer Alex MacLean from 12 September 2008 to 31 January 2009. All the photographs appear in MacLean's new book, OVER, The American Landscape at the Tipping Point (due out November 2008, Abrams).
Alex MacLean is, alongside Swiss photographer Georg Gerster and Frenchman Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a world-renowned practitioner of artistic, scientific and documentary aerial photography.
A trained architect and urban planner, his work is almost exclusively a description of the North-American landscape which he "ploughs" year after year, alone in his airplane from where he documents the history and development of the lands he photographs and the architectural and environmental dangers which threaten them.
Exhibits
Signal, Arizona
Scattered clouds above north-western Arizona scrub desert. Clouds usually just pass over this region, with rainfall averaging a mere 7.5 inches a year.
Phoenix, Arizona (photo available to the press)
Smog settles over the hills north of downtown Phoenix. In the Phoenix metropolitan area, the ground heats up during the day to produce thermal inversion, a phenomenon that captures rising particulates and forms what is known locally as the "brown cloud". Smog has a harmful effect on people who already suffer respiratory problems, while continued suburban growth contributes to the decline in air quality.
Middlebury, Vermont
Field burning after harvest helps control harmful insects and crop disease, but the impact on air quality makes this a controversial practice.
Plaquemine County, Louisiana
Canal dredging in the Mississippi delta gives access to oil platforms but the rapid disappearance of wetlands in the area is a direct result of infiltrating salt water that enters the gulf via these canals.
Santa Rosa Island, Florida
Wind and violent storms have partially buried this coast road in sand, cutting off all access. This dynamic landscape is continually reshaped by tides and hurricanes.
Lake Havasu City, Arizona
Recreational trailers spill out of the hills near Lake Havasu.
Congress, Arizona
This mixed-housing project, intended for both mobile homes and permanent housing, sits in the middle of the desert. The development integrates all the necessary public services into its community. There is a small shopping centre 5 miles away while the nearest town, Phoenix, is some 60 miles away.
Buckeye, Arizona
Stones and aggregates are sorted and stored to be used for "dry" gardening, which has a low environmental impact.
Welsh, Louisiana
Before rice is planted, the fields are flooded with elevated groundwater. After saturation and sowing, the water level must be maintained for the rice to grow. This process, known as wet-seeding, is extremely water-intensive and costly. The flooded land also provides the ideal environment for methane production, a major greenhouse gas that is almost 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Florence, Arizona (photo available to the press)
In Arizona's arid climate, irrigating these lush fields uses up over half the State's total water resources.
Colorado River, Devil's Elbow, Needles, California
A dried-up tributary of the Colorado river. Hydrologists predict that the Colorado river flow will decrease significantly over the coming decades and that reservoirs will be empty by about 2020.
Boulder City, Nevada
Golf courses in the Las Vegas metropolitan area account for 5% of the region's water consumption. Pictured here is part of the 71-hole Cascata golf course. Conscious of this incongruous position, the developers have taken steps to save 60 million gallons of water per year by improving turf aeration and replacing some areas of rye grass with Bermuda grass, which needs less water.
Maurepas, Louisiana (photo available to the press)
This area, which was once completely covered in cypress forests, still bears the scars of the channels that transported the felled trees.
