STRANGE LAND

Strange Land

Photographer: Cody Cobb

Photographer Cody Cobb tells us about producing some of the most stunning landscape images we’ve ever seen.

“The feeling of being an observer on an alien planet fulfils my childhood obsession with science fiction and fantasy,” explains photographer Cody Cobb. In his minimal photographic style, the barren vistas of the American continent become otherworldly scenes: In his photo series ‘Strange Land’, desiccated rocks rest eternally under an almost boundless sky, and in ’South’ only the faintest glimpse of humanity can be seen in long since abandoned shacks.

“My practice as an artist is something I accidentally stumbled into,” he explains. “I was lucky to have access to a computer and Photoshop as a kid where I’d spend hours cutting up and rearranging scanned technical drawings of the starship Enterprise…somehow, I managed to get a job doing motion graphics and 3D animation based on those digital illustrations that I was making in high school.”

It wasn’t long before Cody started to look away from the home he had made for himself as a designer in Seattle to the wilderness beyond; “Stumbling into a stressful and newly emerging industry at a young age eventually led to periods of severe burnout. It’s those experiences that inspired me to explore the outdoors for relief. The enormity of that new world I was learning about felt like something I needed to try and capture and I started bringing a camera along.

I find that I need at least a week of solitude before I’m able to drift into that altered state of observation, I live out of my car or tent for a month or two at a time. I rarely have signal or internet access, only a GPS beacon for emergencies. I feel lonely, tired and dirty but the experience of uninterrupted observation and silence is surreal and invigorating. I don’t plan my routes with great detail - unless it’s technical or challenging terrain - because I like to rely on intuition and discover things as they come up.

I give myself time to linger in an environment and allow for serendipity. The privilege of being able to do this for weeks at a time is something I think about a lot. I know how lucky I am to be able to change my environment at will, something many people don’t have the ability to do. I’d love to figure out a way to introduce that experience of making art in the outdoors with more people; I worry about the future of these vulnerable places and people who love them or live within them.

"I find that I need at least a week of solitude before I’m able to drift into that altered state of observation."

"I don’t plan my routes with great detail - unless it’s technical or challenging terrain - because I like to rely on intuition and discover things as they come up."

My own experience of these places has changed, as a result. I’m becoming painfully aware of my own impact on the Earth and trying to adjust accordingly. My photography practice is also beginning to move away from my personal experiences and is instead shifting towards the people who are actively trying to help solve problems related to climate change. I hope to share more of their stories moving forward.”