PETER FUNCH - THE IMPERFECT ATLAS

PETER FUNCH
The Imperfect Atlas

Published by TBW Books, 2019
Book size 22.2 x 31.1 cm
Pages 144 pages
70 images
Softcover with a PVC dust jacket
Language English
ISBN 978-1-942953-42-5
© Peter Funch/V1 Gallery. Courtesy TBW Books

“ Peter Funch's latest project addresses the passage of time and man's continued and evolving effects on the environment. Appropriately, Funch explores the Anthropocene by employing a photographic technique invented at the height of the Industrial Revolution, that of RGB tri-color separations. Featuring images captured during Funch's various trips through the Northern Cascade Mountain Range, the book is an imperfect recreation of landscapes and wilderness as depicted in the archive of vintage postcards and ephemera of the region the artist amassed throughout his travels.

Using maps and satellite imagery to locate the position where the postcard images were created, Funch recaptures the landscapes across three distinct exposures via red, green, and blue filters, transposed one on top of the other.

As time collapses across the recreated landscapes, features and events are revealed or obscured by each successive filter, speaking to what Funch calls “our blindness to the consequences we are creating.” The Imperfect Atlas brings to light a dialogue on man's severe and accelerated impact on nature, a solemn and mystifying visual archive of a wilderness the future may not be held.” -Publisher

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“Peter Funch’s latest project is about the passage of time and the ongoing, evolving effects of humans on the environment. Fittingly, Funch explores the Anthropocene using a photographic technique invented at the height of the Industrial Revolution, RGB tri-color separations. Featuring images captured on Funch’s various trips across the North Cascades mountain range, the book is an imperfect reconstruction of the landscapes and wilderness as depicted in the artist’s archive of vintage postcards and ephemera of the region that he collected throughout his travels.

Using maps and satellite images to locate the position where the postcard images were created, Funch recaptures the landscapes through three separate exposures via red, green and blue filters, transposed on top of each other.

As time flows through the recreated landscapes, features and events are revealed or obscured by each successive filter, evoking what Funch calls “our blindness to the consequences we create.” The Imperfect Atlas illuminates a dialogue about man’s severe and accelerating impact on nature, a solemn and mystifying visual archive of a wilderness that the future may not see.