Limb
*For full series: http://benedictscheuer.com/Limb
“Limb” is a series of self-portrait images that create a space between the binary of wilderness and culture. The title of the series speaks to this sentiment as a word that exists fluidly between these constructed categories, it being used to describe both the outstretched branch of a maple tree and the arm of a wandering, human boy. Rather than a call for humanities return to wilderness, bright flashes merge both human figure and nature object together in unexpected swaths of color, piecing together a new visual language that hybridizes wilderness and culture together. With the camera as the only audience, each image highlights a solitary performance in which the artist interacts with his wilderness surroundings. The self-portrait process inducing a state of flow and ironic lack of self-awareness, the photographs capture both the erotic and playful wildness of human-nature interactions. To be both wilderness and culture simultaneously, that is the power and beauty of a word like “Limb.”
“Limb” is a series of self-portrait images that create a space between the binary of wilderness and culture. The title of the series speaks to this sentiment as a word that exists fluidly between these constructed categories, it being used to describe both the outstretched branch of a maple tree and the arm of a wandering, human boy. Rather than a call for humanities return to wilderness, bright flashes merge both human figure and nature object together in unexpected swaths of color, piecing together a new visual language that hybridizes wilderness and culture together. With the camera as the only audience, each image highlights a solitary performance in which the artist interacts with his wilderness surroundings. The self-portrait process inducing a state of flow and ironic lack of self-awareness, the photographs capture both the erotic and playful wildness of human-nature interactions. To be both wilderness and culture simultaneously, that is the power and beauty of a word like “Limb.”