Meet the artist

Marco Bohr

The works included on the ArtLab website include images taken from three different series of works, ‘Uniform,’ ‘Icefishers’ and ‘Floating Cities.’ The theme that runs through his work is an examination of the relationship between man and a variety of different environments; this environment can be resolutely urban, while at other times a natural wilderness. He also experiments with photographic processes in order to manipulate the viewers’ perception of the subject or emphasise a particular aspect of the composition, such as people or architecture.

 

In ‘Floating Cities,’ for example, Bohr explores the place of people within an urban environment, and people’s desire for escape from it, even while remaining in the heart of the city. The series, the subject of an exhibition in London in 2007, features amateur musicians playing on the banks of the Tamagawa River, on the outskirts of Tokyo. In a city as densely populated as the Japanese megapolis, this is one of the few places to practice musical instruments without disturbing others; but the Tamagawa River is also a place frequented for leisure, for courtship, for play, and those who visit this stretch of land are longing to escape the pressures and strictures of the urban environment. In this and another series, ‘Uniform’ Bohr is also keen to debunk our perception of the Japanese as an essentially homogenous culture. In ‘Uniform’ while he photographs Japanese people wearing uniforms, he takes a broad definition of uniform including clothing that simply defines a particular social group. Also, he photographs his subjects in isolation so as to assert their individuality as people.

 

In ‘Icefishers’ Bohr considers the relationship between this harsh arctic environment in Canada and the people who go there to fish. These men, ordinary, blokish Canadians express their affection for this environment in almost spiritual terms, revealing, perhaps unexpectedly, a meditative side to their personalities. 

 

 

 

 

Work by this artist