Olaf Otto Becker
Olaf Otto Becker’s striking photographs show us natural terrains in a state of transition. Each of his images, even those of overwhelming beauty, documents a peril, the impending destruction of a unique world. “When I am photographing I try to imagine exactly how this particular view might look in fifty, one hundred, or even five hundred years. How will it have changed?” asks Becker. “What traces do people leave behind? How do we treat nature?” For example, in the first section of his Habitat (2014) series Becker presents us with paradisiacal tableaus from the jungles of Malaysia and Indonesia, its mammoth trees surviving thanks to rigorous conservation measures. In contrast, in the second section, Becker painfully shows us what happens throughout the globe when internationally operating companies clear large tracts of land and giant areas of barren, treeless terrain result. Erosion also does its work, and no life can survive in these places. In the final section Becker presents the artificial “forests” conceived by various international architects to insert greenery into urban space. With these pairings, the artist asks, “Is this our vision of the future?”
He has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as El Paso Museum of Art, …
Olaf Otto Becker’s striking photographs show us natural terrains in a state of transition. Each of his images, even those of overwhelming beauty, documents a peril, the impending destruction of a unique world. “When I am photographing I try to imagine exactly how this particular view might look in fifty, one hundred, or even five hundred years. How will it have changed?” asks Becker. “What traces do people leave behind? How do we treat nature?” For example, in the first section of his Habitat (2014) series Becker presents us with paradisiacal tableaus from the jungles of Malaysia and Indonesia, its mammoth trees surviving thanks to rigorous conservation measures. In contrast, in the second section, Becker painfully shows us what happens throughout the globe when internationally operating companies clear large tracts of land and giant areas of barren, treeless terrain result. Erosion also does its work, and no life can survive in these places. In the final section Becker presents the artificial “forests” conceived by various international architects to insert greenery into urban space. With these pairings, the artist asks, “Is this our vision of the future?”
He has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as El Paso Museum of Art, Anchorage Museum, Nevada Museum of Art, and Artipelag in Stockholm. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Stadthaus Ulm, Copenhagen’s National Museum of Photography, Alfred-Erhardt-Stiftung in Cologne, and Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, among many others venues.
Courtesy of Hatje Cantz
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Städtische Galerie, Überlingen, Germany
Galerie f5,6, Munich, Germany
Galerie Nikolaus Ruzicska, Salzburg, Austria
Elipsis Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey