One of Spain's most prominent and innovative artists, Joan Fontcuberta is best known for exploring the interstices between art, science, and illusion. Where science reaches its limits in his works, the imagination frequently finds a creative space in which to flourish. In Landscapes without Memory, Fontcuberta has co-opted a piece of computer software originally designed for military or scientific use in rendering three-dimensional images of landscapes. The software enables the user to build photo-realistic models based on information scanned from two-dimensional sources—usually satellite surveys or cartographic data. The result gives the user the illusion of navigating in three dimensions which had previously been visualized only as a flat image.Fontcuberta feeds the software fragments of pictures by Turner, Cézanne, Dalí, Stieglitz, Weston, and others, forcing the program to interpret a variety of landscape masterworks as "real." The contours and tones of these painted and photographic landscapes are transformed into three-dimensional mountains, rivers, valleys, and clouds.
My edits using my own images