Vatnajökull

“For his latest series Vatnajökull, Matthew Brandt exposed his photographs of Iceland’s Vatna ice field to fire and heat, and then, through color-separation, creates a range of tonalities across multiple impressions on a single image. With their blistered, undulating surfaces, each photograph emerges with a unique topography. The series marks an extension of the artist's on-going interest in the chemical color process and is his third to explore chromogenic material with natural elements.”

—Juxtapoz Magazine, Matthew Brandt’s Beautiful Chromogenic Prints of Iceland’s Glacial Terrain, 2020

https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/photography/matthew-brandt-s-beautiful-chromogenic-prints-of-iceland-s-glacial-terrain/

“Brandt portrays the Vatna Glacier, the largest ice cap in Iceland, in a remarkably creative way. After taking photographs of the glacier, he makes a chromogenic print, and then exposes this print to fire and heat. Brandt then separates the colors using three individual sheets, and finally presses these onto one image. What results is a three-dimensional image full of burn marks and a unique texture, providing a physical, multi-sensory experience.

With this dynamic in mind, the subject of Brandt’s Vatnajökull series might not necessarily be the Vatna Glacier itself, but the warming temperatures that are melting it. Scientists have postulated that this glacier, the second-largest in Europe, could disappear within two hundred years if the climate continues to change at its current rate. With this in mind, Brandt’s application of fire and heat to the print may appear as not only an exciting innovation, but also as a very conscious commentary on the climate crisis. By manipulating his prints, the glacier is transformed from a state of pristine, untouched beauty into a depiction that is much more complicated and challenging. Brandt’s process here suggests a direct metaphor for the climate crisis, paralleling what is actually happening to the glacier as a result of a warming globe. In producing remarkably conceptual works through unorthodox artistic processes, Brandt’s works engage our senses through their aesthetic charm and stimulate our imaginations about everything the photographic medium is capable of.”

—Musée Magazine, The Earth: Matthew Brandt, 2020

https://museemagazine.com/features/2021/4/21/the-earth-matthew-brandt