projects

Framing /  by a zugunruhe

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Living in NYC has given me an appreciation for how the surface of a city evolves.

How structures decay, how paint cracks, how advertisements fade, how posters are torn, how the proximity of salt water affects discoloration, how taggers write over others' tags.

Everything comes together in such a beautiful symphony of color and texture, caused by both time and human intervention, that I wanted to capture it in some way other than an iPhone photo here and there (although you can find many on my personal IG: @adamziegenhals).

I will admit that introducing the frame to these photos feels kitschy and hokey. My aim wasn't to make a bunch of Instagram shots and postcards, but to focus the view where I felt a confluence of the project's aim. In the process of shooting—hours spent wandering neighborhoods—I found the frame useful in highlighting what I wanted to capture. It sometimes became the subject itself, leading to some of my favorite shots.

I had the idea of lugging around a frame to do this project for a while, but finding these amazing, albeit beat up, gold frames in a SoHo trash heap kicked things off. How better to frame instances of disregarded beauty, than with an actual discarded frame?
 

Gallery

Dreamscapes /  by a zugunruhe

Dreamscapes concentrates on the lucid views created by the midnight sunlight. While these photos don't capture full light during normal night, they represent the ominous daylight that lingers waiting for the summer solstice to arrive.

Lightwaves /  by a zugunruhe

During my first weekend in Skagaströnd, I trekked out to the nearby seacliffs at night and climbed out to the edge with my camera, a light, and a long Pavement playlist. Also a few beers. Sitting on the edge of a cliff with strong winds at the end of winter in northern Iceland requires a few beers. 

Lightwaves is my attempt to bring color and beauty to the power of the ocean that surrounds Iceland. Driving along the coast and living in a seaside town, you become aware of how menacing and incredible the water and its tide can be. This collection was produced to add a new face to those crashing sounds.

I spent four nights getting the Lightwaves method down and I'm incredibly proud of what I have to offer here. I was blessed one night with a strong showing of the northern lights which blend perfectly into the background of a few shots.

All photos were taken from the sea cliffs outside of Skagaströnd and are not photoshopped. The only post-production techniques used were minor Lightroom tweaks to correct what Adobe does to Sony raw files.