Join us on Saturday 18 November for a talk connecting art and nature as we dig deeper into the current exhibition 

 by Hira Nabi and the latest issue of Foam Magazine #64: EXTREMES—

A still from Wild Encounters, 2023

Foam

Art and environment in the Anthropocene

Foam Magazine #64 Extremes - The Environmental Issue. Cover: Abundance, 2023

Foam Magazine #64 Extremes - The Environmental Issue Cover: Scarcity, 2023.

Image from the series Theatre of Authenticity

From the series Waste Identity Passport for Plastics & Bola Bola Living

"The portfolios and essays on this side address the growth, excess, overproduction, overconsumption, and greed that drive the Anthropogenic engine to continue grinding."

Presenting Foam Magazine #64: Waste Identity: Passport for Plastics & Bola Bola Living by Aàdesokan

Waste Identity: Passport for Plastics & Bola Bola Living

PORTFOLIO – Waste Identity: Passport for Plastics & Bola Bola Living by Aàdesokan

Presenting Foam Magazine #64: Crisis of Storytelling by Gem Fletcher

LONG READ – Crisis of Storytelling by Gem Fletcher

Presenting Foam Magazine #64: Theatre of Authenticity by Natacha de Mahieu

PORTFOLIO –  Theatre of Authenticity by Natacha de Mahieu

Page 144-145 in Foam Magazine #64: EXTREMES

From the series The Eyes of Earth

From the series Master Rock

"This side shows the impact, the disintegration, and the lack of connection to native knowledge, capturing the decrease in different ways."

Presenting Foam Magazine #64: Master Rock by Maria Fusco

PORTFOLIO –  Master Rock by Maria Fusco

Presenting Foam Magazine #64: Radical Inclusivity, Relationality and Indigenous Photography by Wanda Nanibush

LONG READ – Radical Inclusivity, Relationality and Indigenous Photography by Wanda Nanibush

Presenting Foam Magazine #64: The Eyes of Earth by Solmaz Daryani

PORTFOLIO –  The Eyes of Earth by Solmaz Daryani

Foam Magazine #64 Extremes - The Environmental Issue Cover: Abundance, 2023

EXTREMES – The Environmental Issue: New ways of visualising climate change in Foam Magazine

The West Desert, located on the western shore of the Great Salt Lake in Utah (USA), is the ancestral home of the indigenous Goshute people. Though officially public lands, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, this area is largely used for various privatised or military purposes, ranging from mining operations, testing grounds for weapons and improvised gun ranges.  

, Jaclyn Wright visited these cluttered sites, full of discarded targets and shattered clay pigeons. The bullet-holed remains, which she collected, photographed and filmed, are pieced together into performative installations, that reflect on the colonisation of ancient lands by bureaucratic systems.  

By inserting herself into the scene, wearing a skintight bodysuit made out of orange clay pigeons, Wright comments on the hyper-masculine culture of land dominance and cowboy fantasies. The synthetic orange colour becomes symbolic: used to enhance visibility, it signifies the strong opposition and rejection of its natural environment. 

Untitled (BLM arrows I)

From the series High Visibility (Blaze Orange)

Antelope Island (Utah) Buffalo Hunt photograph collection, Digital MSSC782, No. 6, Altered

L. Clyde Anderson photograph collection (1910- 1959), P0158, Box 1, Folder 27, Altered

Charles James Neal photograph collection (1900 - 1920s), P0694, Box 1, Folder 4, Altered

The West Desert is located on the western side of the Great Salt Lake [UT, United States]. Historically, this area has been documented through photography and land surveys, supporting the violent exploitation of the landscape. 

Archives, II

Untitled (grid)

Nearly one-third of the West Desert's 7.7 million acres are used as biological and chemical weapons testing grounds. The remaining areas of the West Desert are open to various uses, including improvised gun ranges.

Collected Targets

Collected Targets, from the series High Visibility (Blaze Orange)

L. Clyde Anderson photograph collection (1910- 1959), P0158, Box 1, Folder 6, Altered

Stansbury Island, the second largest island in the Great Salt Lake, echoes with gunfire and is littered with bullet holes, clay pigeons and improvised targets. The Bureau of Land Management refers to this detritus as "trigger trash".

Found Clay Pigeons

Archives, V

Jaclyn Wright

from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces

 is a personal exploration of loss, grief and reconciliation following the death of the artist’s father. Through various tools of digital creation and manipulation, Cristóbal Ascencio created a poetic exploration of his personal memories, altering family photos and recreating the last garden his father worked on.  

Fifteen years after his father passed away, Cristóbal Ascencio learned that his death had been a suicide. The last words of Margarito’s farewell letter stated: “Forgive me and communicate with me.” This new piece of information triggered Ascencio to revisit the images, places and memories connected to his family history.  

In an attempt to answer his father’s final request, he digitally recreated a collection of plants based on his father’s instructions as well as an immersive garden, where the plants function as a bridge between past and present. Using different digital techniques, such as ‘data bending’, photogrammetry and 3D modelling, Ascencio plays on the idea that our memories are manufactured, manipulated and corrupted over time.  

Margarito, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Data bending on archival photography.

Nacer, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Databending on archival photography.

Bromelia, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Digital photography and photogrammetry

Wedding, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Databending on archival photography.

Letter, from the series Las flores mueren dos veces

Monstera Deliciosa, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Digital photography and photogrammetry

Burial, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Data bending on archival photography.

Birthday, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Databending on archival photography.

Tagetes Erecta, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Digital photography and photogrammetry

Lucha Libre, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Databending on archival photography.

from the series Las floren mueren dos veces

Cristóbal Ascencio

Dream-like figures appear in dense forests, dancing and floating around smoke and fires like magical figures. For 

Cansu Yıldıran collaborated with fellow queer artists based in Turkey to create a fantastic world where they could feel safe and sheltered —a feeling that is often lacking in their daily life.

The dreamy visuals are fittingly accompanied by a fairytale, written by Yıldıran themselves, which tells about the heavy norms enforced on the queer community by society and how this collaborative project helped them to believe in another world, a deep mysterious realm within them.

 offers an escape: inspired by their dreams and childhood fairytales, Yıldıran’s images unravel a certain state of mind, a deeper meaning of what it means to be queer within a hostile environment. The photographs are all analogue—a technical yet vital element of the project. Not knowing anything about the visual outcome during the process, it allowed Cansu Yıldıran to approach each portrait intuitively and independent of the rest. 

From the series Fathom

Cansu Yıldıran

In 1947, when the British left India after 89 years of colonial rule, the land was divided into two countries: Pakistan and India. Known as the Partition of India, this enforced and hastily drawn line sparked a violent mass migration of fifteen million people, changing the course of history on the subcontinent for generations to come.  

, Aaryan Sinha documented his journey across five Indian states bordering with Pakistan. The photographs capture his travels in an intuitive and poetic way, and together investigate how historical events, like the partition, influence the Indian landscape and the identity of its people, including his own. 

At the core of the project lies Aaryan’s attempt to depict a version of India that is truer to his experience, one of similarity and connection, rather than division and opposition. Through this, his project also exposes the relationship between photography and colonialism—aiming to revoke the stereotypical perception of a poor, overpopulated nation held by many in the West. 

In a Sandstone Mine

A Dream from Childhood

Portrait of Time

From the series This Isn't Divide and Conquer

Stillness

Scars Run Deep

Escape

Reinforcement

Aaryan Sinha

 in 2004. The artwork is an analogue c-print and is displayed at 61 x 80 cm.

System 8, from the series Kosmos, 2011

visible in

is the main business district of Amsterdam, located south of the inner city. Starting in 2001, every year two to four photographers and visual artists received an assignment to capture this area and its rapidly changing environment. The ten works by Jasper Wiedeman that feature in 

 are a documentation of the garden that he created in the middle of the Zuidas.

06.09.2004

 in 2018. The artwork is an ice photogram digitally printed on glass, and is displayed at 33 x 40 cm.

In an attempt to minimize the devastating effect of global warming on the glaciers of the Swiss Alps, each summer they are covered with geotextile blankets that are designed to keep the ice cool. Douglas Mandry journeyed his native country, intrigued by this desperate attempt to prevent the receding glaciers from further melting. The artist collected disused pieces of geotextile from the mountains, and later processed them as a base for found photographs of early twentieth-century alpinism in the region. Mandry also took bits of broken ice from the glacier with him in a cool box. In the darkroom, he put the ice in the enlarger, where it started to melt and drip onto the photo paper, creating a colourful aura of the glacier. Mandry then reproduced these photograms on glass plates. 

could be considered an index of the vanishing glaciers of Switzerland: frozen time, captured in an instant by the principles of photography.

Monuments, Aletsch #2, 2018

Foam Magazine is an international award-winning photography publication.

Front cover: Faceless, 2023. Image from the series (Inter)Faces of Predictions

Cover image: Sunil and Sulbha Dhiwar, with Tanmay, Tejasvi, Sourabh, Prachi and Vivek from the Goody family archive, 2002. Image from the series Eat with Great Delight

Cover image: Untitled / After Courbet (L’origine du monde), 2004. Colour photograph, 46x55cm. Photograph: David Rych.

Foam Magazine 61 Talent. Image: Paintings, Dreams and Love © Yushi Li

Foam Magazine #60 Glyphs – The Image + Text Issue

Image from the series EIGHTEEN NINETY 2020 installation detail from the exhibition In Plain Sight

Foam Magazine is published two times a year. Each issue is dedicated to a specific theme that is explored through work by both world-renowned image makers and newer, emerging talents. Accompanying essays, interviews and opinions by experts in the field come together to shape an in-depth and critical conversation.

Crafted with distinct editorial choices, Foam Magazine has been the recipient of several awards for its high-grade graphic design and quality of content.

Phone showing Foam magazine

Image from the series Playing with Visual Fragments

Title

Foam Magazine #59: Histories - The Archival Issue, 2021 

Image from the series After Hours

title

Image from the series Collection of Unjust Enrichment

Image from the series Where We ve Been, Where We re Going Why

Stockists

Foam Talent Call

Contact

Magazine

Created by Vincent Zedelius in 2004. The artwork is a c-print mounted on MDF coated with epoxy and displayed at 90 x 70 cm.

Waves from the Web, 2009

As the title suggests, the images for this series served as a training exercise for Vincent Zedelius, enabling him to improve his photographic eye. 

 shows the interior of an old carpentry and furniture school. The rectangular shapes on the ground and the wall, in combination with the desk and piece of paper create a pleasant geometry. However, the clean surfaces and the centred lighting also add a slightly mysterious feel. The peel of the tangerine disturbs the scene and enhances the uncanniness. Aside from the peel, there is little to suggest the building is still in use. 

Throughout his work, Zedelius displays an interest in environments where only traces of human presence can be found and the tension this creates. In 2006, Zedelius’s series 

Exercise #03 from the series Exercise

Exercise #03

Opening of recommended Olympus Fellowship at Foam

major partners

collaborative projects

Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation & Foam Talent

recommended Olympus Fellowship

Opening of Now You See Me Moria at Foam

Image from the series Flash Points

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 in 2015. The artwork is a digital pigment print. It explores themes as 

Maldoror #6, 2014

Foam is supported by the VriendenLoterij, Foam Members, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, the VandenEnde Foundation and the City of Amsterdam.

In 2021 Foam receives additional support from the Mondriaan Fund and Kickstart Cultuurfonds

Experimental Lake is set around a world-class research facility looking into human impact on nature. It is situated within the pristine natural environment of the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in north-west Ontario, Canada. 58 lakes comprise a natural laboratory where a community of international scientists test the effect of new chemical substances and other human inventions on the environment. Their daily activities are monitored by Simoneau as a complex ecosystem in its own right, much like a scientist studies his specimen. Results from case-studies done in the ELA inform environmental policies worldwide. Similarly, Simoneau’s small observations speak of a universal interconnectedness between man and nature, as increasingly mediated through science – and photography. 

Location lab one, on location ELA, Canada, 2015 from the series Experimental Lake

Location lab one, on location ELA, Canada, 2015

 in 2018. The artwork is a digital pigment print and displayed at 41 x 55 cm. It explores themes as 

Lightning Storm Flare from the series Experimental Lake

Lightning Storm Flare

Mayflies by D. McLeod, on location ELA, Canada from the series Experimental Lake

Mayflies by D. McLeod, on location ELA, Canada

 in 2010. Using c-print as the medium, the artwork is displayed at 60 x 40 cm.

Paper Girl 2, from the series World, 2010

A frail and twisted female body dissimulated behind pieces of paper: profoundly influenced by fashion and design, Ina Jang’s images are unconventional and light. She creates a complex and multidimensional world in which reality and fiction are intertwined using different surfaces and layers.

The base of Jang’s work is her experimental curiosity. Many of her images start with drawings or figures, which become obscured in surreal, hyper-stimulated environments. Jang’s goal is to find new perspectives in photography: "Coming up with something that completely breaks the boundaries might be impossible, but I think it’s always nice to try to break personal boundaries." With her conceptually and aesthetically playful approach to photography, Jang crafts her own visual language and creates light-hearted and poetic work.

Paper Girl 2

 in 2015 as a HD video projection on a screen as a 14 minute loop. Text is by Anne de Vries, audio remix by James Whipple (a.k.a.M.E.S.H) and 3D programming by Diego Tonus.

The videowork ‘Critical Mass: Pure Immanence’ is inspired by the last essay by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze: ‘Life: Pure Immanence’ (1995), a text that articulates the ultimate integration between all elements and oppositions. Anne de Vries translated Deleuze’s theory to the form and limitations of dance music. It resonates with the recurring sentiment in electronic dance music that calls for unity, for altered states of consciousness and experience beyond society’s divisions. Motivational speaking has become an important element in the relatively recent genre of Electronic Dance Music, Hardstyle, a voice exceeding the music that addresses the masses. It is part of a mostly Dutch phenomenon that represents the next step in dance events, creating whole environments which are, according to De Vries, celebrations of the artificial and synthetic in sound and visuals.

Critical Mass: Pure Immanence

Text-to-image generators have gained tremendous popularity over the past years. This specific application of artificial intelligence allows users to create digital images based on textual input. It seems that any desired image is just a few clicks away, with little to no technological knowledge about the inner workings needed.  

But what happens underneath the hood? How does a text-to-image AI exactly work? This step-by-step explainer will lift (some) of the curtains of image generation and shed light inside the black box of AI. 

Disclaimer: this is a simplified explanation of text-to-image generation. In reality, there are many different types of generation models, approaches and techniques. To learn more about this complex technology, we recommend reading 

Inside the Black Box


Results

Text to Image explained

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In a four-part series led by acclaimed Polaroid artists Rhiannon Adams, Ellen Carey & John Reuter, and Marcel Veldman and Foam 3h alumnus Ece Gökalp, the participating students were able to use the recently launched Polaroid I-2 camera – the first advanced instant camera with built-in manual controls. Moreover, they had the chance to discuss their perspectives about the possibilities of storytelling and the enduring relevancy of this unique medium.

Students as well as young, self-made creatives approached the medium from various angles and shed light on its artistic, social, and technological significance by pushing the boundaries of what instant film can achieve. The results of their collective efforts are now on display as part of an exclusive online exhibition.

This programme is made possible with the support of Polaroid.

Foam is supported by the VriendenLoterij, Foam Members, the VandenEnde Foundation and the City of Amsterdam. 

PORTRAITURE
AND
THE PHYSICAL
PHOTOGRAPH

“Polaroid photo processes are completed in situ, there is no external hand involved. It’s pure – just me, the camera, the environment, and the film.” 

POLAROID PHOTOGRAPHY 
AS AN ARTISTIC MEDIUM

CAPTURING 
REAL 
               LIFE

“In between all the skateboard tricks and stuff, I like something contrasty. Instant film for me is the perfect way to do this. It gives you an example of the free life aside from the actual skateboard.”

Polaroid Photography in Multiple Perspectives

Hibo and Hani from Somalia. Photo taken in Kenya, 2019

For more information and visual material please contact the Press Office of Foam via pressoffice@foam.org.

Note to editors

see more

Foam x KLABU: Strength Away From Home

The red bags are used for the seeds, 2021

On the occassion of Earth Day, Foam curator  Amelie Schüle speaks with artists Ana Núñez Rodríguez and Isadora Romero, whose work both trace personal and global stories around one specific vegetable: the potato.

environment

Art and environment in
the Anthropocene

EXTREMES – The Environmental Issue:
New ways of visualising climate change in Foam Magazine

Jaclyn Wright

Cristóbal Ascencio

Cansu Yıldıran

Aaryan Sinha

06.09.2004

Monuments, Aletsch #2, 2018

Magazine

Exercise #03

Our partnerships

Location lab one, on location ELA, Canada, 2015

Lightning Storm Flare

Mayflies by D. McLeod, on location ELA, Canada

Paper Girl 2

Critical Mass: Pure Immanence

Text to Image explained

Memberships

Polaroid Photography in Multiple Perspectives

Foam x KLABU: Strength Away From Home

Earth Day with Ana Núñez Rodríguez and Isadora Romero

Silent Chronicles
About the work of Steffi Reimers

Next Level: Sara Cwynar

On Assignment

Navigating the Media Industry

How to Love a Tree: Wild Encounters
About the work of Hira Nabi

environment

Art and environment inthe Anthropocene

EXTREMES – The Environmental Issue: New ways of visualising climate change in Foam Magazine

Jaclyn Wright

Cristóbal Ascencio

Cansu Yıldıran

Aaryan Sinha

06.09.2004

Monuments, Aletsch #2, 2018

Magazine

Exercise #03

Our partnerships

Location lab one, on location ELA, Canada, 2015

Lightning Storm Flare

Mayflies by D. McLeod, on location ELA, Canada

Paper Girl 2

Critical Mass: Pure Immanence

Text to Image explained

Memberships

Polaroid Photography in Multiple Perspectives

Foam x KLABU: Strength Away From Home

Earth Day with Ana Núñez Rodríguez and Isadora Romero

Silent ChroniclesAbout the work of Steffi Reimers

Next Level: Sara Cwynar

On Assignment

Navigating the Media Industry

How to Love a Tree: Wild EncountersAbout the work of Hira Nabi

Art and environment in
the Anthropocene

EXTREMES – The Environmental Issue:
New ways of visualising climate change in Foam Magazine

Silent Chronicles
About the work of Steffi Reimers

How to Love a Tree: Wild Encounters
About the work of Hira Nabi