{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1359626"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1359626/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JG7924/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JG7924/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2016JG7924","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1359626","accessionNumber":"E.2651-2016","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"'#326-5' from the series 'Sequester'","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"From the series  <i>Sequester</i>","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Awoiska van der Molen (b.1972, Groningen, Netherlands) is a Dutch photographer based in Amsterdam. She studied architecture and photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Minerva in Groningen. In 2003 she graduated from the St. Joost Academy of Art and Design in the Netherlands with an MFA in Photographic Studies. Her work is borne out of an immersion in nature and is concerned with the untamed landscape and the sense of solitude that can be experienced in isolated locations. She works with analogue technology and explains that her pictures should be ‘understood as a metaphysical quest, a journey to the essence of being.’\r\n\r\nFor the project Sequester, van der Molen walked alone in the Canary Islands, seeking to ‘gain access to the stoic nature of the landscape’, as she describes it. She made long exposure black-and-white pictures of the dramatic volcanic terrain and dense forests at dawn and dusk. The exposures could be as long as thirty minutes and result in photographs of great intensity and ambiguity.\r\n\r\nVan der Molen’s photographs go beyond the long tradition of black and white landscape photography, exemplified by photographers in the V&A collection such as Gustave Le Gray, Samuel Bourne, Ansel Adams, and Edward Weston. Rather than emulating the visual approaches of past masters, she seeks to portray the inner condition that uninhabited natural spaces engender. \r\n\r\nHer interest in psychological states in relation to landscape can be aligned with that of numerous contemporary practitioners, including Chrystel Lebas and Nicholas Hughes, whose landscape photographs are also created using long exposures and convey a similar atmosphere of primeval power and solitude.\r\n\r\nThe collotype process is a screenless photomechanical process that allows high-quality prints from continuous-tone photographic negatives. Collotypes are comprised of many layers of ink and have a velvety matte appearance; the process has the power to produce the depth and detail of these works faithfully. Other examples of collotypes in the collection largely date from the 19th century and include works by Eadweard Muybridge and Julia Margaret Cameron. Once a widespread process, today, there are only two professional collotype studios remaining, both of which are in Kyoto.\n\nIn 2014, van der Molen received the Japanese Hariban Award, which gave her the opportunity to collaborate with the master printmakers of the Benrido Collotype Atelier in Kyoto to produce this set of 8 collotypes from the Sequester project.\r\n\r\n","physicalDescription":"Black and white collotype photograph of a landscape depicting a natural formation of rocks covered with a moss-like plant. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Awoiska van der Molen","id":"AUTH338458"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Benrido Collotype Atelier","id":"AUTH339229"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Benrido Collotype Atelier, based in Kyoto, have been refining the process of collotype for over a century. "}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"}],"techniques":[{"text":"collotype","id":"AAT53204"},{"text":"photography","id":"AAT54225"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oil based pigment ink on Japanese Gampi paper, presented in a handmade linen box","categories":[{"text":"Landscapes","id":"THES250800"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2016JG7924"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"DR57","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Kyoto","id":"x31966"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Produced at the Benrido Atelier, Kyoto"},{"place":{"text":"Canary Islands","id":"x29859"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"van der Molen walked alone in the Canary Islands. She made long exposure black-and-white pictures of the dramatic volcanic terrain and dense forests at dawn and dusk. "},{"place":{"text":"Kyoto","id":"x31966"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Produced at the Bennido Atelier, Kyoto"},{"place":{"text":"Canary Islands","id":"x29859"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"van der Molen walked alone in the Canary Islands. She made long exposure black-and-white pictures of the dramatic volcanic terrain and dense forests at dawn and dusk. "},{"place":{"text":"Kyoto","id":"x31966"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Produced at the Bennido Atelier, Kyoto"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2011","earliest":"2011-01-01","latest":"2011-12-31"},"association":{"text":"Photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"2014","earliest":"2014-01-01","latest":"2014-12-31"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Produced the collotypes in October 2014"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchase funded by the Photographs Acquisition Group","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"50","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"05/07/2016","earliest":"2016-07-05","latest":"2016-07-05"},"part":"","note":"Approximation. "},{"dimension":"Width","value":"60","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"05/07/2016","earliest":"2016-07-05","latest":"2016-07-05"},"part":"","note":"Approximation"}],"dimensionsNote":"This measurement is an approximation. ","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Collotype photograph, '#326-5' from the series <i>Sequester</i> by Awoiska Van Der Molen, 2011, colotype produced 2014.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Sean O’Hagen, ‘Bewitched by blackness: photographing the desolate beauty of the Canaries’, The Guardian, 26 September 2014."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Canary Islands","id":"x29859"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.2651-2016"],"accessionNumberNum":"2651","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":2016,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-09","recordCreationDate":"2016-06-15","availableToBook":false}}