Illuminations in Situ
Photo and Places
Celebrating the ephemeral borders between nature and humanity, Illuminations in Situ is a powerful photographic collection.
The photographs of David Moore and Jolanta Sprawka’s French-language coffee-table book Illuminations in Situ work with natural sunlight and shadows to capture the essences of particular places.
Both ethereal and grounded, these photographs are sensuous, focused on the vitality of life and celebrating the ephemeral nature of the border between nature and humanity. A stone circle in the ruins of a Greek city is cathartic, connecting the ancient world and the contemporary one; its themes of circularity are returned to later in the book, including through images of other stone circles. Elsewhere, the duality of life and death is explored, with reflections on trees that ceased to fruit or flower, are bare of leaves, and yet still stand; dynamic poses mimicking those of the trees complement the images.
The foci range from Greek beaches to ruins and clusters of statues. An Egyptian temple that was relocated to Warsaw is depicted, embodying the allure of the ancient world. An aging woman in black hails the fading sunlight, seen through a gap in the trees; a field of wheat and grass is rendered golden in twilight. The light of the golden hour is used to create a natural sense of contrast between light and dark; long, deep-set shadows fall across the foreground, implying the fragility and fleetingness of human life.
Great attention is paid to formatting and placement of the photographs, as well as to the spatial weight and balance of each page. In a pair of triptychs, a haunting, blurry silhouette appears in a hallway, appearing to dance and undulate; in other photographs, the presence of the wind accomplishes the same sense of movement. A billowing white shawl covers a model while shadows obscure most of her body. In still other photographs, red cloth dances to dynamic effect. Indeed, the book’s poses and and foci suggest raw vulnerability.
The colors of each spread complement their photographs, with many images existing in stark relief against deep, earthy browns and other consistent colors. In a pair of woodland scenes, a model plays with the branches of a tree whose short canopy allows easy access to the leaves and stems, her long, flaxen hair illuminated and glowing. The book’s themes are echoed in its poetic descriptions, which have a playful quality as they explain the images and their mystical elements. An excerpt from poet Yiannis Ritsos is also included, preceding a luminous homage to the soul of Greece.
With photographs implying motion or dwelling in stillness, the masterful photography collection Illuminations in Situ, which doubles as a study of light and shadow, issues visual odes to particular places.
Reviewed by
Caitlin Cacciatore
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
