Retrospective of Landscapes by Hans Strand at photoSchweiz

A journey into the unknown, extended with passion, will always lead to a right destination. Hans Strand’s journey into photography is no different. A mechanical engineer by qualification and profession, he didn’t take up photography seriously until 1990.  Honoring his iconic experience in Nature and Landscaping photography, photoSchweiz held forum hosted by the acclaimed Swedish photographer at its 2020 exhibition at Hall 622, Oerlikon. The photoForum, held on Jan 11^th, browsed through his most significant pictures from 1990 to 2019 illustrating the aesthetics of both natural and man-made landscapes on our planet.

The retrospective photo voyage began from his roll and film days when photography was considered an expensive hobby. Hans confesses that he was no special than other rookie photographers who would often commit the mistake of copying their idols by visiting the same places and capturing from same angles but he soon realized that it would only make him an impostor rather than an expert. He paved his own path and made his own name in the elite field of landscaping photography. The journeys he had to endure for perfect pictures would sometimes be as long as 4 days or choked for hours with sea sickness or dangerous with morbid scents. Still, Hans never backed down for the love of photography. Hans first ever longest project was in Iceland which included 35 travels in 1995 alone. His other projects include traveling to Indian Oceans, Finland, Greenland, Malaysia, Spain, Arctic and Antarctica.

Mist gives you the desired depth of the field, he fondly asserted as he drove us through each picture at the forum. Also, he profoundly explained how he framed and geared up for the execution. Abstraction and chaos are his favorite themes and declared that he always tries to showcase some disturbance in his picture while perfectly positioning the corners to bring the viewer’s attention to the crux. To master the art, he guarantees that, one should never try to please others. It is you who has to be satisfied with the outcome and none else.

The 25 years of journey with his camera also introduced him to the destruction man has been making to the mother earth. Through rivers in highlands, Arctic glaciers and land mining in Spain, he witnessed the narcissism in humans that propelled global warming faster than civilization. And, thus his recent projects have been on poisonous rivers and manmade agricultural landscapes. Hans cautions his audience that only in creating awareness, participating in environmental movements and telling stories on mankind expansion can bring the necessary impact.

As the one and half hour edifying forum draws to close, Hans announces that his future projects focus on environmental crisis. Although his new theme is, unlike his earlier ones, focusing on bad things, he believes it is fresh, interesting but most importantly supports his mission of exposing man’s greed. Greta Thunberg, Hans thinks, is the only purist in our world of pollution and hopes we take her seriously and act fast.

The PhotoSchweiz is Switzerland’s largest photo exhibition and last year alone it attracted more than 27,000 visitors. Numerous artists from across the world compete to showcase their work in this esteemed exhibition as the event also complements with seminars from best photographers via photoForum and with courses and workshops via photoSchool.

 

• Art
• Forum
• Global warming
• Hans Strand
• landscapes
• Photo exhibition
• PhotoSCHWEIZ