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Empreinte du Bâti Agricole
By : Marc Cramer
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 16th edition
Discipline : Art & Photography : Grand Winner, Award of the Year Winner
Categories : Photo / Photographie de paysage : Platinum Winner
Title of the project “Imprint of agricultural buildings”
Corpus of 32 photographic works made between 2014 and 2022.
Marc Cramer\\\\’s approach reveals a world that \\\\ »is invisible or almost.” We pass by and overlook the magnificent gem hidden in plain sight. It is waiting to be discovered, to tell its story and to share the memory of a time past.
\\\\ »The Barn\\\\ » is a symbol of protection for survival in an agricultural environment. At the architectural level, it aims to be a solid, functional, and efficient construction. At the structural level, engineering findings abound, whilst most of the time, the barns are erected without the approval of engineers or architects. Oral transmission between neighbors, as well as the expertise of various trades, was used to develop an empirical approach in the field.
In 2018, more than 3,000 heritage homes disappeared in Quebec, barns were left out since they were not classified as historical monuments. The harsh winter of 2019 was particularly damaging for heritage buildings, too often forgotten, neglected and poorly maintained. The figures for these disappearances are still unknown. It is part of our collective memory that vanishes with these buildings. The pictures, patiently reworked, reveal the essence, the beauty of reality as the evocation of a fantastic, almost abstract universe. The white immensity of our winter is the blank canvas on which the building stands out on the horizon, it is a transfigured landscape, magnified by these abandoned silhouettes.
The artist photographer travels the roads of Quebec, year after year in winter, in cloudy or stormy weather, on the lookout for these architectural remains. An agricultural region is identified, and studied beforehand, then the route is traced on Google Map. If the landscapes appear to be peaceful, the shots were taken under very stressful conditions.
The photographer must be warmly dressed and wearing a safety vest, while
the car is stopped on the side of the road. One must move towards the site carrying
equipment and tracing their steps in the snow. The shot is taken on a tripod, equipped
with a panoramic head, a Leica M240 and two lenses; 50mm and 90mm Apo sum micron. More
of 100 sites were photographed.
Printing on Arches archive 350gr paper in the format 19×24 in/48x61cm and a print in
size 44x96in/ 11x243cm.
Proofs are printed on a Canon PRO 2100 printer.
Both the production and the printing of the project were carried out in the artist\\\\’s studio, an
old country school converted into a studio with landscape all around, cornfields as far as the eye can see.
mprint of agricultural buildings”
Corpus of 32 photographic works made between 2014 and 2022.
Marc Cramer\\\\’s approach reveals a world that \\\\ »is invisible or almost.” We pass by and overlook the magnificent gem hidden in plain sight. It is waiting to be discovered, to tell its story and to share the memory of a time past.
The artist photographer travels the roads of Quebec, year after year in winter, in cloudy or stormy weather, on the lookout for these architectural remains.
The pictures, patiently reworked, reveal the essence, the beauty of reality as the evocation of a fantastic, almost abstract universe. The white immensity of our winter is the blank canvas on which the building stands out on the horizon, it is a transfigured landscape, magnified by these abandoned silhouettes.
