In his Habitat series, Olaf Otto Becker (born 1959) presents idyllic dreamlike places—paradisical tableaus from the jungles of Malaysia and Indonesia. (Romantic floodplains, tree trunks slung with liana vines, niches for countless life forms—these are the untouched tropical rainforests of legend.) Even the temperate rainforest of Redwood National Parks in California seems reassuringly intact: the mammoth trees are surviving thanks to rigorous conservation measures. By contrast, in the second half of his series Becker shows what happens across the globe when international corporations clear large tracts of land and giant areas of barren, treeless terrain result. Erosion also does its work, and no life can survive in these places. In the final section, Becker presents the artificial "forests" conceived by various international architects to insert greenery into urban space.
"Deforestation of Primary Forest, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia 03/2012" is reproduced from Olaf Otto Becker: Reading the Landscape.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Huck
Miss Rosen
Beauty, tragedy, and farce: in a new project, photographer Otto Olaf Becker examines the complex relationship between mankind and the environment.
"Ghost Trees After Deforestation, Malaysia" (10/2012) is reproduced from Olaf Otto Becker: Reading the Landscape, published by Hatje Cantz and released this week. Becker writes, "My pictures and videos are an attempt to report on what I’ve experienced, on what I’ve seen with my own eyes and what has, for that reason, deeply moved me. For many years I’ve been visiting places where human beings have encountered pristine nature, either directly or indirectly, and I’ve watched as these places have shrunk at an alarming rate. While researching the subject, it first seemed to me almost paradoxical that the so-called western world was behind both the destruction of the primary habitats and the attempts to protect them. I saw how both sides in the conflict were using impoverished and poorly-educated local populations for their own interests. For the most part, local people can only powerlessly watch as these dramatic changes take place." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 13.75 x 11 in. / 160 pgs / 85 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $95.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $127.5 ISBN: 9783775738545 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz AVAILABLE: 2/24/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA
In his Habitat series, Olaf Otto Becker (born 1959) presents idyllic dreamlike places—paradisical tableaus from the jungles of Malaysia and Indonesia. (Romantic floodplains, tree trunks slung with liana vines, niches for countless life forms—these are the untouched tropical rainforests of legend.) Even the temperate rainforest of Redwood National Parks in California seems reassuringly intact: the mammoth trees are surviving thanks to rigorous conservation measures. By contrast, in the second half of his series Becker shows what happens across the globe when international corporations clear large tracts of land and giant areas of barren, treeless terrain result. Erosion also does its work, and no life can survive in these places. In the final section, Becker presents the artificial "forests" conceived by various international architects to insert greenery into urban space.
