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| © Nicolai Howalt and Trine Søndergaard / Courtesy Martin Asbaek Projects |
| From Howalt and Søndergaard's series How to Hunt. Click photo for more images. |
Ages: 37 and 25
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Website: nicolaihowalt.com
"This work reflects hunting's modern role as recreation rather than necessity."
They are not the first images to explore man's relationship with nature through the sport of hunting, but the composite digital photos in How to Hunt, by Nicolai Howalt and Trine Søndergaard, are among the most subtly beautiful.
Howalt has created many photographic series that examine and question the notion of identity. In a recent project on adolescent boxers, the artist paired stark portraits of the boys made before boxing matches and images made after the fighting was over. In doing so, he was able to capture his subjects' innocence, even at the moment they were losing it in public battle.
The project on hunters by Howalt and Sondergaard focuses on another kind of ritualized brutality. "Hunting once was a human need, and it's also a classical theme in art history, from cave painting to the Renaissance," Howalt says. "I wanted to place this theme in a modern context, where, at least in the affluent postindustrial west, hunting can be seen as a symbol of 'the good life' and the longing for some kind of authentic relationship to nature."
In these images, there is little violence -- killing is generally kept out of focus. The series shows an anesthetized version of the hunt. "This reflects hunting's modern role as recreation rather than necessity," Howalt says. Inspired by landscape painting, he and Søndergaard worked digitally, layering several exposures of each scene to reflect the movement of people and animals across the landscape.
"It is significant that all the hunting images were made at hunting preserves, which are apparently wild places that are actually man-made," says Howalt, whose work has been exhibited in European museums and New York City's Silverstein Gallery.
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