Though one could assert that all photographs are images of time, none are representations of it. The forces of decay and the movements of the planets, solar radiation, decomposition and recomposition, are traces of a force that may be gestured to but never rendered as a comprehensible whole. Time, itself, evades capture and a photograph is just its wreckage.
—Nic Wilson, “Unseen Forces”
A Landscape Photograph in the Land of the Dead is the second volume in the Writer-in-Residence book series, featuring essays and artwork by Nic Wilson.Wilson's collection examines the complexities of how images operate, their metadata and the bizarre and occult machinations of photography itself. The 124-page publication debuts the new essay, “Somewhere Yet Unknown,” and features an interview between curator Lillian O’Brien Davis and Nic Wilson, annotated by curator, writer and interdisciplinary artist, Blair Fornwald.
Conceived as a collaborative project between Wilson and Art Director/Designer Mark Bennett, the book design responds to the concepts generated during Wilson’s time as 2022 Writer-in-Residence. Through the inclusion of image portfolios, drawings, annotations, documentation photographs and graphic elements, the project crosses into the realm of an artists’ book and takes up the work of seeking out ghosts—examining practices concerning death, memorials and cultural memory.
