It is not often that we notice power lines. However, we will after viewing Bijan Yashar’s beautiful photographs. Yashar makes us aware of ‘the art of the everyday’ and the impact of utility through his compositions, with each of his photographs containing a power line in the center. His captured arrangements involve shapes, lines and strong evidence of the photographic process. They remind the viewer of the importance of electricity, as an energy source and also solely as invention. The artist contrasts man and nature through the distinct lack of people in the photographs.
The power line is purely a pictorial element in “Invercargill, New Zealand 1117.” (The numbers after each photograph’s title refer to the artist’s cataloguing system, similar to power companies’ identification system for utility poles.) It bisects the photograph, almost detracting from the old building’s beauty and draws our attention to the Salomon van Ruysdael-like quality of the sky and the slant of the buildings. We see each half of the photograph separately, then as two halves and then as a whole. In “Berkeley, California 1864,” the line aids the design. It’s weight is equal to the weight of the tree’s lines: a study of man’s (power) lines and nature’s lines (trees). The photograph becomes an abstraction – art from our daily surroundings.
The photographer’s art makes us think of the process of photography. Yashar carefully chooses his material as he looks through his viewfinder. The one criteria is that the power line is in the center, but not, however, always central to the work. In the strongest and most abstract of the photographs, “Oakland, California 8605,” a tree’s angular black lines overlap the slightly curved power lines against a pale gray background; it is as if the photographer took black ink and drew the photograph with his camera. A stormy sky is the background for crisscrossed power lines in “Berkeley, California 0125.”
A tree’s branches wave in the wind next to the skyscape of lines captured by Yashar. Nature looks on as the power lines and Yashar’s camera make their own design.
The focus on composition reminds us of what we are looking at: power lines. This leads us to remember their importance as sources of electricity and our need for them. In “Nelson, New Zealand 9956,” the power line is attached to a house, which reminds us of its usefulness to our homes. The mural of two nineteenth century gold miners emphasizes the importance of electricity, especially to people of the past. Fire is contrasted with a more modern energy source, the power line, in “Wanaka, New Zealand 0106.” It erupts from the house’s chimney and makes us think of electricity next to it, in the form of a simple line.
Electricity, man’s invention, leads us to man, who is only present in one of the seventeen photographs in the show. He is prominent in his absence, as in “Wanaka, New Zealand 3559.” Under darkened clouds, the curve of a street lamp echoes the curve of snow-capped mountains. We wonder about the people who live nearby, if there are any in this remote area. Luckily there will be light to illumine their darkness, through the power line. However, only nature witnesses the electricity source.
Power lines are subsumed by nature’s beauty in “Mill Valley, California 7646.” The lush, green leaves and the rich brown of the tree trunks crowd the photograph. This is primarily a forest scene where we happen to see the six power lines. We need nature’s space for our energy source. She watches us impassively and exists without us. Man, through the power lines, enters the wilderness.
In these quiet photographs, the observant photographer captures the beauty of our everyday surroundings, which we do not usually notice.
Visit Bijan’s Profile Page for contact details, website links and a summary of featured articles on Fallyrag.
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