Scott McFarland

Grant Arnold is Audain Curator of British Columbia Art at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Martin Barnes is senior curator of photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Vincent Honore is curator and head of the collection of the David Roberts Art Foundation.

Scott McFarland makes photographs that address the relationship between nature, civilization and representation through the depiction of rustic cabins, manicured landscapes, zoos, obsolescent photo-labs and the pastoral fringe of urban spaces. Drawing upon the histories of landscape painting and photography, his images are created digitally; each work is comprised of a number of exposures that are stitched into a seamless picture. The constructed character of McFarland's work becomes visible in anomalies-out-of-season foliage or inconsistent shadows-that emerge during extended viewing and undermine the traditional attachment of the photograph to a specific moment. On one level the photographs indicate a state of harmony and tranquility, while on the other the overall effect appears artificial. McFarland's work emphasizes the precarious balance between human and natural worlds, and furthermore how photography's link to reality is both true and fabricated.