Artist's statement

I am fascinated by the beauty of primeval territories yet terrified by the physical changes occurring as the result of our industrial rampage and climate change. My work could thus best be described as a dialogue between awe and fear:

Awe, when I find a place as far away from civilization as can be, as pristine as it has been for millennia, which fills me with a metaphysical reverence for the perfection and grandiosity of the landscape I am seeing. Fear, because I am aware that I am up against a race in time: - the emerald iceberg over a thousand years old, is melting before my very eyes, the chalk like desert I am immersed in is expanding to the end of the horizon.

On my quest to portray the last true places of pure matter I seek the elemental; forms, shapes and sculptures in ice, rock and sand, created by the passing of time, some of which can only be described as surreal. No coincidence that my main series are called “Sand-Water-Time” and “Metamorphosis” depicting the world’s great deserts and polar regions. 

In all of this transformation my “Holy Trees” act like sentinels – ancient survivors of droughts and ice ages, bearing silent witness to thousands of years of evolution. The groves of araucaria trees are a natural sanctuary. Born in the age of dinosaurs, the araucaria trees, venerated by the Mapuche Indians, have withstood the tempests of time. Each holy tree is a temple, a pagoda, an altar between heaven and earth. They are the sovereigns of the native forest, the axis of the south of the continent. Neither the fury of the elements, nor the incessant passage of time can daunt their courage. 

I am at heart a purist, and none of my images are digital creations, which makes my work particularly challenging as nature is unpredictable and I never know what I may or may not find…