Justen Ahren
The Earth Tends To Beauty Despite...
Photographs
Photographs
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Artist Statement: A couple of years ago, driving across West Texas with my daughter, who was returning from a semester at college, I was struck by the landscape of fracking sites, feed lots, and vast, harrowed fields. I made a few photographs and vowed to return to document the intensive, and often brutal human activity upon the land: road cuts, well sites, overgrazing, agriculture. Then the pandemic hit and, like everyone, I was limited in my work. In order to satisfy my need to revisit West Texas, I one day got on Google Earth. The virtual journey was supposed to be research for a future trip when lockdown lifted. I would locate the places I wished to photograph. |
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Hovering miles above the landscape, I was startled to find, instead of scars, degradation, ugliness; a surreal, and exquisite beauty. Silk tapestries, ancient writings, gorgon knots, mandalas, woven rugs. The Earth was working through us, with us, to create. Thus, the title of this series: The Earth Tends To Beauty Despite…
Despite what? Despite all we do upon it. Despite our lack of care. We are but lines of poetry, threads the Earth uses to weave an Art far greater than us.
The images in this series were made South and East of Lubbock, Texas. Flying over the landscape like a spirit, I capture, at various heights (distances), the patterns of roads cuts,
well pads, irrigation circles, harrow and plow marks, cattle trails. These marks become brushstrokes, chakras, ancient script, gold-threaded tapestries, angel’s hair, circuitry, each containing a sacred, repeating geometry, and conveying--beyond our consciousness having created them--symbols to the heavens.
This work owes a large debt—my heart and eyes—to the work of innovative Italian photographer, Mario Giacomelli. Giacomelli captured in his furrowed landscapes, the spirit of the land, it’s writing and speaking.
After composing an image on Google Earth, I capture it and develop it in Lightroom using several modules I designed to bring out the colors and textures of the different soils, topographies and vegetation of the West Texas environment. I decided to tint the images blue, red, and yellow--a primary palette—to draw out an archetypal primacy: the Earth is making through us.
The landscapes are both real and invented, as were Giacomelli’s. They are abstract. They can be viewed from multiple scales depending on how the one sees. Unlike most landscape photography, the images are without horizon line. At first you may not know what you are looking at: a close up of a tapestry, grooves in a record, the curve of a violin. These images allow for many possible viewings. This is what makes these photographs engaging. They require the viewer to bring their own seeing, apply their own meaning and context before they realize what it is they’re looking at.
I see Ariadne handing red thread to Theseus to find his way out of the labyrinth. I see looping knots of Navajo rugs, and the coils of baskets. I see ancient scripts, and an invisible, spirit world parallel to this one, interceding in our lives, whispering inspiration, reminding us of our belonging to the immensity of Life, the Divine, The Earth weaving with us.
Bio:
Justen Ahren is a poet, photographer, musician and writing teacher. Poet Laureate of Martha’s Vineyard, he has two published collections of poetry, A Strange Catechism, and A Machine For Remembering. Justen came to photography a few years ago as a way to document the refugee crises in Europe. The result of this work was a 2018 multi-media performance piece entitled, The War for the Valley. Mr. Ahren has had solo exhibits at the Feldman Family Gallery, Featherstone Center for the Arts, and at The Exodus Institute’s Refugee and Migrant Film Festival. His images also have appeared in numerous art journals, including, most recently, Cold Mountain Review and HocTok. You can view all his photo projects at Justenahren.com and on Instagram:@justenahren. Justenahren@hotmail.com
Despite what? Despite all we do upon it. Despite our lack of care. We are but lines of poetry, threads the Earth uses to weave an Art far greater than us.
The images in this series were made South and East of Lubbock, Texas. Flying over the landscape like a spirit, I capture, at various heights (distances), the patterns of roads cuts,
well pads, irrigation circles, harrow and plow marks, cattle trails. These marks become brushstrokes, chakras, ancient script, gold-threaded tapestries, angel’s hair, circuitry, each containing a sacred, repeating geometry, and conveying--beyond our consciousness having created them--symbols to the heavens.
This work owes a large debt—my heart and eyes—to the work of innovative Italian photographer, Mario Giacomelli. Giacomelli captured in his furrowed landscapes, the spirit of the land, it’s writing and speaking.
After composing an image on Google Earth, I capture it and develop it in Lightroom using several modules I designed to bring out the colors and textures of the different soils, topographies and vegetation of the West Texas environment. I decided to tint the images blue, red, and yellow--a primary palette—to draw out an archetypal primacy: the Earth is making through us.
The landscapes are both real and invented, as were Giacomelli’s. They are abstract. They can be viewed from multiple scales depending on how the one sees. Unlike most landscape photography, the images are without horizon line. At first you may not know what you are looking at: a close up of a tapestry, grooves in a record, the curve of a violin. These images allow for many possible viewings. This is what makes these photographs engaging. They require the viewer to bring their own seeing, apply their own meaning and context before they realize what it is they’re looking at.
I see Ariadne handing red thread to Theseus to find his way out of the labyrinth. I see looping knots of Navajo rugs, and the coils of baskets. I see ancient scripts, and an invisible, spirit world parallel to this one, interceding in our lives, whispering inspiration, reminding us of our belonging to the immensity of Life, the Divine, The Earth weaving with us.
Bio:
Justen Ahren is a poet, photographer, musician and writing teacher. Poet Laureate of Martha’s Vineyard, he has two published collections of poetry, A Strange Catechism, and A Machine For Remembering. Justen came to photography a few years ago as a way to document the refugee crises in Europe. The result of this work was a 2018 multi-media performance piece entitled, The War for the Valley. Mr. Ahren has had solo exhibits at the Feldman Family Gallery, Featherstone Center for the Arts, and at The Exodus Institute’s Refugee and Migrant Film Festival. His images also have appeared in numerous art journals, including, most recently, Cold Mountain Review and HocTok. You can view all his photo projects at Justenahren.com and on Instagram:@justenahren. Justenahren@hotmail.com