David Benjamin Sherry | David Benjamin Sherry (Aperture) Cottonwood Tree II (Orange), Summer. Bears Ears National Monument, Utah. 2018.
“Like many others, I watched in horror as the Trump Administration set out to lift the protected status of designate
(...) d national monuments in order to lease the land for coal and uranium mining and oil drilling. Starting in the spring of 2017, I set out to explore, commune with and photograph these lesser known, wild and hard-to-reach places. Spending months alone in these threatened sanctuaries, I became increasingly motivated to protect them. My project, ‘American Monuments,’ aims to revivify and radicalize American landscape photography—to both celebrate and challenge the traditions of the past, and to continue a tradition of deep communion with our sacred, protected mountains, forests and deserts. Like historical black-and-white landscape photography, my large-format, monochrome, analog process foregrounds form and light, untethering the image from the constraints of straight representation. Color is a conduit for me and demonstrates my emotion and empathy toward the impending destruction of this landscape. While these photographs grapple with a grim political circumstance, I hope they also awaken an adventurous spirit and sense of reverence. They represent resistance, self-determination, and optimism in the face of adversity—core American values that are as imperiled as the land itself.”
- David Benjamin Sherry
Courtesy the artist and Salon 94 NY + Morán Morán LA © David Benjamin Sherry | Magnum Photos
