When in 1989 I was invited to participate in a group show on "Landscapes", it occurred to me that instead of making landscape images myself, I ought to explore the use that is being made of landscape pictures themselves. I was particularly intrigued that representations of so called "reality" would end up becoming a fundamental part of yet a new and different "reality", with all that this entails. The landscapes that appear in these interiors, do not appear there haphazardly, they have been carefully selected from an array of samples offered by the vendors of such images, who sell them by the meter. In certain instances landscapes of New York frequently lit to enhance the idealization of the place, or they can be water falls or lakes, rivers or woods where the destructive intrusion of man never makes itself present. We witness how as man plunders all of nature with astonishing speed, idyllic images of nature start to emerge, and they are decorating our walls. On the other hand we can find that such landscapes are very often familiar scenes to the people showing the images thus becoming a element that offers reinforcement and a symbol of identity. "Paisaxes" is an ironic view of the coexistence of two worlds, the "ours' and "theirs" where we take advantage of the potential for confusion that photography is capable of creating.

Manuel Sendón

Manuel Sendón lives and works in Vigo, Spain and can be reached at: msendon@uvigo.es