robert smithson
Robert Smithson is best decribed as an earthwork artist that uses elements of photography, film and written work in order to help capture and present his work. In 1969, during a trip to Mexico, he visited various disperesed sites which had been abandoned and left to the elements. Using these sites he created the 'Yucatan Mirror Displacement' series, which consisted of nine colour photographs taken by himself of the work that he created. Within this work he installed 12 inch sqaure mirrors on all of the sites and recorded his results using photography. The mirrors were used to reflect and refract the surrounding environment, manipulating the surroundings and shattering it existing forms.
His work is not directly linked to mine however I believe that there are interesting ideas to take away from it. What I like the most about the work is almost how alien the landscapes are in his photographs. The mirrors look out of place in the natural environment yet somehow help to create some lovley earthwork. I like this idea of using something like mirrors or something that refelects light or it's surroundings in my work. Hopefully this idea could help me create some alien photographs of my own. Tieing in the natural with the unatural seems to create erie compositions that keep you glued to photographs.