The Unintended Charm of the Czech Landscape
2021
9 photographs, 42x28 cm, inkjet printing on paper


During the deadliest Covid wave (at the end of winter and beginning of spring 2021), I relocated with my family to a small village on the edge of Central Bohemia. We combined stereotypical days filled with online teaching and the most essential family activities (mealtimes, laundry, tidying up, shopping) with walks around our immediate surroundings. At the same time, the owner of the neighbouring forest began felling trees infested by the bark beetle. I started documenting the progress of this physically forceful and aesthetically paralysing intrusion into the ecosystem of the forest. The end result of this somewhat innocent and aimless photographic activity is a series of nine pictures. They are a reference to an encounter between two ostensibly unconnected pandemic situations at one particular time and place.




















photo: author’s archive