Absence
For ‘Absence’, artist Vincent van Gaalen embarks on a quest to find the few areas in Europe where night-time darkness has yet to be supplanted by human light pollution. Amidst this darkness – surrounded by nothing more than his photographic equipment, a tent and some rations – he photographs our human absence.
Barely visible, the landscapes in these images are all the more palpable. Sharpening the senses, they immerse you in the mysterious wilderness, where your eyes are forced to adjust to the dark. The absence of humans is keenly felt, as is the slowing down of life and time. But these dark spaces also create space for imagination as well as a sense of vulnerability and connection to nature.
Vincent van Gaalen (Netherlands, 1984) explores the age-old friction between human creation and nature’s autonomy. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Art (The Hague) in 2011, after which he worked as a commercial and portrait photographer for various organisations. Since 2020, Van Gaalen has focused on his own art projects, of which ‘Absence’ is the first. ‘Absence’ was supported by Stichting Oog op de Natuur.
Courtesy: BBA Gallery (Berlin) and Galerie Helder (The Hague).