full–scale tableaux

This piece, a collection in Robert ParkeHarrison’s “The Architect’s Brother”, depicts a common message about technology damaging the natural world. He himself noted “My photographs tell stories of loss, human struggle, and personal exploration within landscapes scarred by technology and over-use…. [I] strive to metaphorically and poetically link laborious actions, idiosyncratic rituals and strangely crude machines into tales about our modern experience” (Robert ParkeHarrison). In this image specifically, I believe he is trying to insinuate we are trying to reach higher and higher but are held down by the conditions we created. We see a misty environment with little to no plants other than the dead tree this man is on top of. We see makeshift wings (clearly a human invention) that one could read as damaging the environment around him. the black and white nature gives off a dark tone within this image as well. He is looking up not down which lads me to believe he is thinking about, again, how to accelerate more in the world with more inventions. He wants more than the world can offer; greed.

Knight, Chris, and Follow Residing in New York City. “Amazing Surreal Work from Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison.” Fstoppers, 19 Jan. 2013, fstoppers.com/portraits/amazing-surreal-work-robert-shana-parkeharrison-4009.