HUDSON
This body of work, created in the summer of 2019, is a response to the landscape of the Hudson River Valley. To make her photographs, artist Laura Plageman explored the steep slopes and valleys of the area, with an attention toward the subtle and impending effects of climate change. As with her other projects, Plageman plays with photographic truth and distortion. She makes pictures that examine the natural world as a scene of mystery, radiance, and constant change — transformed both by its own design and human presence.

Inspired by the Hudson River School, Plageman plays off of this regional history with a contemporary take on the sublime. The physical transformations of her photographs allude to the role humans play in altering our vulnerable environment and show us the fine line between beauty and subversion.

One site she shot was Mohonk Preserve’s Humpty Dumpty Talus Slope, a rocky outcrop where old-growth hemlocks tenaciously hold their own in an extremely competitive environment. Because the Talus Slope is fairly inaccessible, the hemlocks there are hundreds of years old, having survived the tanning and logging industries that felled 75% of New York State forests by the late 1800s.

Laura Plageman is an artist and educator who lives and works in Oakland, CA. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and institutions across the United States and internationally. She earned a BA from Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) and an MFA from the California College of the Arts (San Francisco, CA.