Inspired By
The Lozenge Series
by David Axelbank
David Axelbank was raised in the Soviet Union, Israel and the USA. He graduated from the State University of New York at Purchase in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Art. He has lived in New York and San Francisco, but has been based in London since 2000. He has worked in the photo industry since 1993 with positions at Magnum Photos (New York and London) and Saba Press Photos; and is currently a Lecturer in Photography at the University of Hertfordshire, UK.
He was selected for inclusion in the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize (2005) and he has published in The Drawbridge, Verities and in Zioxla's Strange Plants. His editorial and commercial clients include Adidas, The Guardian Magazine, The Gap, Grazia, Sony Pictures Classic, Tank Magazine, Tate Britain, TimeOut, and XLR8R Magazine, amongst others. His archive work is represented by Gallery Stock.
“Landscape is the natural world interpreted from a human viewpoint. It is a cultural and aesthetic construct, as much to do with the framing, as it has to do with semiotics. The traditional landscape format is based around a horizontal rectangle, however this does not reflect how we view the world - rather it is an art historical convention. Tilting a square format camera 45 degrees on its horizontal-vertical axis, produces a sensory shift that better replicates the human field of vision.
The Lozenge Series began as an exploration of framing landscape, but it soon became clear that something else was happening. The essential geometry of nature coalesced in this compositional shift. This effect was understood by Piet Mondrian who experimented with it in his abstract paintings. Terming the results “neo-plasticism” Mondrian’s work sought to balance horizontal and vertical forms derived from nature, in particular trees, within square or lozenge frames. This ongoing series reflects a similar preoccupation with nature’s architecture.
Echoing Piet Mondrian’s abstractions from nature, the essential geometry of nature, in particular that of trees coalesces in a lozenge frame.”