THOMAS SCHWORER
“What is our human place in nature?” Schworer’s artwork of the last two decades has largely been an achingly beautiful exploration of this question. Navigating by Natural Phenomena, is an ongoing series of photographs and assemblages. All imagery is shot in camera at each specific site. For the past year, he has been exploring the visual impact of de-constructing his images and breaking out of the traditional boundaries of the photographic print. He separates each image into 5-12 overlapping photographs that are then printed, sewn together and mounted.
“My photography revolves around the human figure and its intimate relationship with the natural landscape. I mainly focus my lens within the damp, hidden, root-tangled understory of Pacific Northwest forests. Primarily I shoot with a vintage Rolleiflex camera using black and white medium format film, which I then scan and prepare digitally for making prints or large-scale negatives. My final prints are archival pigment in small editions. These photographs celebrate the essential sustenance that wild places offer us. I work to illuminate their mystery (and hopefully our own)with images of longing, grace, hope, and love.”
