Camoufage 2015

Editor: Here we have Elina Brotherus’s photograph, “Camoufage,” created in 2015. The photograph uses a mixed-media approach. There is a quietness in it; the man blends with his environment. How can we unpack the themes of labor and nature represented in the work? Curator: The photographic process is labor, let’s start there. Consider the historical context of landscape photography, and how that labor has often been romanticized, divorced from its actual, physical demands. Here, Brotherus stages a tension. Are we looking at a body at "work," or is it evading such activity, literally hidden within the green boughs? Editor: So the "work" becomes not just creating the photograph itself, but also this idea of disappearing, camouflaging oneself from broader society, maybe escaping labor altogether. Is the photographic “realism” then a tool or a mask? Curator: Exactly! The tension arises when we consider the "means of production" – Brotherus, the camera, the depicted figure – versus the implication of idleness or freedom from the market system, that "realism" then veils an intentional production that seeks to critique production and hiding away in "nature". How much of our lives is dedicated to performing labor? This begs that same question of nature. What is at play with such stark portraiture that hides and seeks. Editor: This tension makes me think differently about camouflage itself - the way something seemingly disappears often involves immense labor. Curator: Precisely. And the final photograph, circulated, commodified, continues the chain of value extraction. What labor does *seeing* demand? Editor: That makes you question the whole consumption process too. This photograph initially felt very simple, almost serene. But thinking about the labor embedded in it gives it such depth. Curator: Indeed. The photograph as an object itself and how it got here shapes the way we reflect and what can and can't be "seen".