shashasha

“Taken together, these color sketches represent a visual poem, one that is mindful of the power of clouds, of their unstable and elusive nature and, on land, of the wonders that flow from them and depend on them. The whole of nature relies on the water in clouds.”
― from Luce Lebart’s afterword

Terri Weifenbach’s photobook “Cloud Physics” is both an ode to the natural world’s manifold beauty and a visual survey of the way we experience, perceive and relate to nature. Page after page, “Cloud Physics” offers forests, trees, close-ups of bark, branches, fruits, flowers, then dragonflies and seagulls and clouds passing by in the sky; nature not untouched by humans (there are also photographs of children swimming in lakes) but looking its best. The images themselves are offered without titles or explanation. At the back of the book, a list provides further context, including the precise location, weather, temperature, air press, wind speed and humidity at the time each photograph was taken. Weifenbach even dedicates part of her book to the various instruments used to record these data; instruments we use to observe the changing climate and measure the health of the weather system.

An extensive essay at the back of the book by photography historian and curator Luce Lebart further explores Weifenbach’s practice and puts it into context with artists’ interest in scientific weather measuring devices in the past several hundred years (all texts in English).