The western landscape casts a particular spell on photographers – from Carleton Watkins’ majestic views of Yosemite Valley to Robert Adams’ roadside scenes of suburban development surrounding Los Angeles. Sean McFarland subverts the historical conventions of this long tradition in his recent series, begun in 2007, which combines his own documentary style photographs with found images to create mysterious and surreal landscapes. Interested in the ways in which humans have altered and transformed the natural environment, he notes that “by focusing on making images of the natural world, [he is] interested in making pictures of us. How we change the earth and how the earth affects us.” Working both by hand and with the computer, McFarland makes collages, which he then re-photographs with a Polaroid MP4 Land Camera. The resulting pictures blend the spontaneity and perceived direct representation of a Polaroid and the artifice of the new digital language. By titling them Pictures of the Earth, he questions both the veracity of the photograph, and our concept of the natural world…

– Lisa J. Sutcliffe
Extract from the essay from Pictures of the Earth, published by Eli Ridgway Gallery, San Francisco, 2012

All images ©Sean McFarland