4.0 out of 5 stars
Beach Junk as Modern Art, 27 Nov 2011
By Armin Nikkhah Shirazi - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Dominant Wave Theory (Hardcover)
'Dominant wave theory' is a photographic album that realizes an interesting concept: It is full of photos of debris that has washed onto and litters various beaches in England, Continental Europe and America, taken in such a way that the trash seems unexpectedly alien and, dare we say, even beautiful.
The crisp pictures' usage of lush colors and various photographic techniques give an utterly unexpected perspective to mundane familiar objects that have fulfilled their purpose and now are reduced to detritus. For instance, a technique used in several photographs (including the cover picture) is to allow for the object to take up almost all the central space, thereby conveying the impression that it is much larger than it really is, and also giving one the feeling that it came from outer space. More than once, I was reminded of the monolith scene in the movie '2001: A Space Odyssey'. I don't know if it was the artist's intention but the idea of conveying that this rubbish is alien to nature and the beaches by making it seem like a collection of 'alien' (i.e. outer space) objects strikes me as ingenious.
The album contains several accompanying essays which examine some of the broader context in which pictures were taken, and the environmental problems that the beach offal poses is a dominant reoccurring theme.
The book would make a nice gift for environmentally conscious people who enjoy beach-related activities, or those (like me) who just enjoy being exposed to a novel perspective on familiar items.