This project came about off the back of a job I shot with set designer Hattie Newman early 2015.
Hattie regularly gets commissioned to create elaborate, detailed paper scenes of cities or landscapes (or both) for photoshoots and commercials; while we were working on the particular job we were discussing how some of the elements of the set, particularly the elements of a mountain range would make a great project in their own right.
I was interested in how the act of decontextualising the landscape elements of the set into a series of formal studies could suggest a fresh set of characteristics.
Rather than treat the objects as representations where the mechanics are obscured to create an illusion the set was treated as a set of objects-in-themselves, exposing some of the technical work that would normally be hidden - for instance, flaps where one mountain would join onto another are made visible.
In some cases the pieces have been placed without reference to how they might stand in reality - a ridge of hills balances on its side with one end lifting off the surface in a gravity defying gesture; a mountain lies as if on its back, prone.
Retouched by Paul @ Tablet