Absence
Project statement
Dutch photographer Vincent van Gaalen travels to the darkest areas of Europe where the veil of nocturnal darkness has yet to be invaded by artificial light pollution. Through meticulously executed photography, van Gaalen studies the age-old friction between human intervention and the autonomy of nature.
In his ongoing project Absence (2020-), van Gaalen seeks to portray human absence amidst the darkness of the night. He journeys carrying only his photography equipment, light provisions and a tent. Emerging from the deepest blacks; leaves, stones, water and air catch the light of the moon and stars. In this world, as darkness takes control, reason makes way for imagination and vulnerability. Among the vast, muted landscapes is a shrouded ecosystem teeming with hidden life. The landscape remains barely visible - but tangible all the more.
These fragile moonlit landscapes enveloped in a barely-perceptible silver light invite viewers into a serene observation of nature unadulterated by the industrial human hand. Here, the ancestral fear of darkness, as a product of years of urban evolution dissipates, replaced instead by the profound solace and respite offered far away from urban society.
