Across Ground

"Across Ground" comprises two new books by the Swiss-born, San-Francisco-based photographer Lukas Felzmann, who for nearly thirty years has been making poetic images that explore the intersection of nature and culture in California's landscape. Developed in tandem between 2017 and 2024, the two volumes take us on an allusive journey through the Golden State's fifty-eight counties, revealing seemingly liminal zones located in between cities, national parks and landmarks. Using a large format view camera, Felzmann follows the border of the continent to the edges of small towns to create a conceptual atlas of the Californian hinterland.In "Across" Felzmann roams the territory freely, collecting signs of human activity in the natural environment, from foothills to felled cypress trees, in windows and reflections, across floodplains and focal planes. "Across" is not only a journey across land, but also across time and the process of photography, which Felzmann treats like a sculptural activity anchored by physical placement and the ultimate compression of space. In "Ground" this compression of space appears like a series of relief sculptures: monochrome records of topographical details brimming with beauty. Accompanied by poetic, geological reflections on each image by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Forrest Gander, these horizonless portrait images invite readers to immerse themselves in the here and now, rather than offer any promise of a final destination.