Barnard, in association with Foto | Black Box is pleased to present LINE – a photographic installation of works by South African photographer and filmmaker Garth Meyer.
For several years Meyer photographed primary hardwood forests along the imaginary line of the equator to communicate, persuade and warn of the continued ecological destruction that is occurring along this line. His aim was to capture arcadian visions of these environments before they are destroyed and to show how this arcadian vision is disrupted by a more dystopian one. The images from this project were photographed in three areas that circle the equator: Southeast Asia, Africa and South America, where over half of the world’s rainforests are concentrated, and which he visited to follow the line. LINE is an attempt to understand the current pressures on the equatorial environment and create a photographic exploration of ecology that highlights and foregrounds land, space, territories, boundaries and power. Meyer’s field of study and research considers ecology through the theory and lens of photography.
Garth Meyer holds a Photography Technician Diploma, an Advanced Diploma in Film & Television Production Techniques, a BAFA Honours and a MFA (2019) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He is part of The African Film Library and in 2012 he was published in the book South African Cinema 1896 – 2010 by Dr. Martin Botha. In the same year he took part in the group exhibition Environment and Object: Recent African Art at the Frances Young Tang Museum in New York. In 2013 he was nominated for the Prix Pictet Global Award in Photography and Sustainability and in 2019 he was awarded the Tierney Fellowship Award for Photography representing the University of Cape Town.