Portfolio & Interview by SchwarzWeiss Magazine, April 2025
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SCHWARZWEISS magazine issue 165
Interview: Patrick Brakowsky
How do the ideas for your images in “Human//Nature” arise? Is there a concrete vision for every image before you realize it?
Most of the ideas arise when I try to freely associate with the general concept of the human-nature relationship. I like to dive deep into a state of mind where emotion meets imagination. This helps me to explore the concept. It’s interesting to me that the ideas usually revolve around a character that engages with the landscape yet sometimes feels out of place. When human-made elements are placed in the landscape, the character is left somewhere between the natural and the unnatural, and the artwork only exists because of the combination of the two.
For some ideas I have a very specific and concrete vision of what they should be. For Human//Nature #5, I knew I wanted to create a perfect circle of stones (placing them uphill in an oval shape to create the circle in the right perspective), and place a figure in de centre resembling the symbol of an on/off switch. I had to find the right location to accommodate the idea. The dunes of Fuerteventura proofed to be perfect for this image.
But ideas can also arise on the spot, when the landscape instantly inspires me. This was the case for Human//Nature #22. It came to me when I saw the afternoon sun cast long shadows over the hills. I try to be open to any idea or opportunity that might arise.
How do you choose the remote places where the images take place?
I fell in love with desert like landscapes the first time I visited Death Valley (USA). It’s such an unforgiving landscape, yet majestic in all its shapes and forms. I was in awe of the beauty of the mountains, salt flats and dunes. At the same time I felt humble to its vastness and the extreme conditions. It seemed like a place where fragility and strength go hand in hand. It felt so genuine and real that, even if just for a moment, I was released from everything I thought I needed in my life.
I feel the same about volcanic landscapes, where destruction and creation meet with such brutal force. Another thing about these locations is that they are very suitable for an almost minimal visual language. And I do prefer to make fairly simple compositions with just a few lines. For the Inscapes and the Human//Nature series I travelled to Utah, Nevada, California, Australia, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Tenerife and mainland Spain. But I can also find very suitable and beautiful locations closer to home in The Netherlands, like Kootwijkerzand, De Veluwe, and de Waddeneilanden, to name a few.
"Human//Nature" can be described as a follow-up to your "Inscapes"-series. While you appeared in this series yourself, you are now stepping back and leaving the scene largely to anonymous figures. Does this reflect a darker view of the world in terms of your big topic, the relationship of humans and nature?
That’s an interesting question. I can understand that especially the dark morph suit might have that effect, although I didn’t consciously chose to portray a darker vision in relation to the human-nature relationship. I indeed model for both series myself, but it has never been important to me to be recognized as such. I simply like to work alone to experience my personal connection to the landscape in the most profound way. The main reason I started to portray the figure more anonymously is that I wanted it to be more human in general instead of a certain individual. Besides that, I noticed that my composition choices were becoming increasingly minimal. Pushing the character further into anonymity contributed to the minimalist visual language, sometimes reducing it to a mere human shape.
But I would like to add that no matter what my intentions or my motivations may have been, if nothing else I hope that these images trigger the imagination and inspires viewers to their own interpretation. As an artist you can learn a lot from what others see in your work, and personal interpretations can create something unique between an artwork and each individual beholder.
Many of your other series are in colour but with “Inscapes” and “Human//Nature” you focus on black and white? Why is that?
Choosing black and white photography was a very intuitive decision. Most of my work up to the Inscapes series was in full color. But somewhere during a beautiful road trip in the South-West USA, I simply woke up to the thought that it should be in black and white. I don’t regret that decision and still feel very comfortable with it.
I did try to analyze why this felt so good. I’m not sure I have the answer to that, but I do feel that the strength of black and white photography is that it somehow forces me to go to the core of things. There are no distractions in color, which in my experience leaves less room for mistakes in composition. All you have to work with is light, contrast and shapes in different levels of density. I also feel that the combination of surrealistic elements and the more classic appearance of black and white work very well together.
Would like to explain a little bit how your images are created technically? How are the requisites made? How much digital postprocessing is happening?
Some of the props I use are simple household items like rope, mirrors, balloons, boards or hula hoops. I usually look for items that can function as a shape, like an almost objective artificial element. They metaphorically refer to the ties we have to modern society.
Apart from their visual function in the artworks, it is important to me to actually struggle with these artificial elements in the natural environments. I wouldn’t add an element to an image that I haven’t photographed on location in natural light. There will always be a certain amount of postproduction like color management and deleting unwanted details like footsteps. If needed, which is not always the case, I do use straightforward Photoshop techniques, like adjusting the size and shape of an element or collage technique, to get the desired results. For example photographing the same prop separately in different positions, in order to create multiples within the final image. I apply the same technique for multiple figures. Other props are created on the spot. Sometimes I travel with studio background paper to be able to make all kinds of shapes, like the dress in Human//Nature #28 (as well as #16 and #17).
What are your thoughts on artificial intelligence in photography and especially for your own work?
I’ve never used AI in my autonomous work and I don’t plan to do so in the future. Working on location is an important aspect of my work. The only way to truly explore my connection to the natural world is to actually experience it. Not to mention the fact that I absolutely love it. The photographs are not only ideas transformed into artworks. To me they are also experiences and cherished memories, and I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.
I do think that new technologies open the doors to new ways of expression, and that can be a beautiful thing. But you will always need two things to make good art: a good idea and skilful execution. No matter what the technology is, I don’t think it will ever make up for ideas that were bad to begin with.
With the rise of AI however, it becomes increasingly difficult for the viewer to distinguish between lens-based art and AI generated images. In this light I think that the method of creation, the story behind the process, will play a bigger part in the interpretation and the appreciation of the artwork.
Another thing is, and this is something I do worry about, is that as an artist it’s very hard to protect your work from being used by AI generators without your permission. But I firmly believe that a true piece of art will always originate in a creative mind.