Christopher Rodriguez

Statement:
In this project I am exploring Nature and Landscape as ideas. With some of the images, I am referencing 18th and 19th century historical concepts of landscape like the Sublime, or the Christianized view that nature is God. Other images are concerned with how these ideas manifest themselves today, specifically via artifice and moments of human interaction. I like the tension between the historical and current representations of nature, and they way they are tempered by abstract and emotional threads running through the series. I am looking for places and moments when the landscape turns bizarre and surreal; where atmosphere can become a foundation for images to communicate with each other. The submitted images are part of a larger group of 45 images that I have been making on road trips over the past 5 years.

Bio:
Christopher Rodriguez’s photographs explore notions of rapture, archetypes and artifice. His architectural roots influence his photography as a way to think critically about the landscape. He views the landscape is an abstract entity, realized as moments of human intervention and poetic interpretation. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Louisiana State University and received his MFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, graduating with Chairman’s Honors. He has exhibited nationally and internationally. Currently he is the head of artistic production at James Casebere Studio and teaches graduate and undergraduate photography courses at Montclair State University, NJ. He lives in Brooklyn.

Artist’s Website: chrisrodriguezphoto.com