Inspired by scientific insights into complex physical forces that shape landscapes, I explore the outdoors with my camera, looking for the visual traces of the forces that created them. I produce both photographic prints and hand-painted sculpture from digital 3D scans of landscape forms.
About the Artist
Helen Glazer's work in photography and photogrammetry-based sculpture is informed by scientific insights into interacting forces affecting ecosystems and shaping landscapes. Experiences as Baltimore Ecosystem Study artist-in-residence and National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program grantee have shaped her thinking. Her project Walking in Antarctica premiered as a solo show at Goucher College, Baltimore, funded with a Rubys Award from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and an artist's grant from the Puffin Foundation in 2017. That show is touring US museums under the auspices of ExhibitsUSA (eusa.org) for 5 years starting 2022. Two photos from the project enlarged to 7 x 10 feet are in a rotating exhibition at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The Center for Art + Environment of the Nevada Museum of Art houses her Antarctica archive. She has been interviewed by Vice Media's Creators Project, AtlasObscura.com, Adobe 99U Magazine, and Baltimore's NPR news station. In 2012 she received an Individual Artist Award in photography from the Maryland State Arts Council and had a solo show of her photographs at Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York. She received a Rubys Award from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation to fund a photography project begun in 2021 of the former US Sondrestrom Air Base in Greenland for an eventual book. The Kangerlussuaq Museum has received a grant from the US Embassy in Copenhagen to mount a permanent exhibit of her photographs in 2023.HELEN GLAZER website Helen Glazer, Artist HELEN GLAZER website Helen Glazer, Travel and Nature Photographs
Artist's Statement
Inspired by scientific insights into complex physical forces that shape landscapes, I explore the outdoors with my camera. I am attracted to uncommonly visited places, from the remote Antarctic and Arctic wilderness to the overgrown banks of an urban stream, looking for the visual traces that reveal how water and wind have moved through the space. I strive to convey the wonder and complexity of the natural world to others, hoping to motivate viewers to explore their environment and protect wild places. My study of earth science over the past several years heightened my awareness of the multiple factors shaping the land over time. In recognizing that complex patterns in nature express the particular physical forces at work, I became more attuned to the interplay between geology, climate, life forms, and human activity in a given location. That awareness informs how I select and compose my photographs. Some present sweeping views, others take a more abstract approach, zeroing in on evocative details. Some of the photographs are produced as archival prints. My sculptures of landscape forms are each generated from a series of still photographs taken on site from different angles and reconstructed as 3D scans by photogrammetry software. After further editing in 3D modeling software, the resulting digital files become the basis for hand-painted sculptures made with digital fabrication technologies — CNC routers or 3D printers. They provide the viewer a visceral experience of form and texture that differs from the flat image and fixed point of view delivered by a photographic print.Featured Work
Photos
Featured Work: Photos
Scalloped Sand, Lake Hoare, Antarctica
archival pigment print
2015/2017
Sand in the shadow of the Canada Glacier beside the Lake Hoare field camp during the brief melt season, a puddle reflecting the clear blue sky of 24-hour daylight at 1:20 a.m.
Pressure Ridge Beneath the Double Curtain Glacier
archival pigment print
2015/2016
The Baroque-looking sea ice pressure ridges below the Double Curtain Glacier are seldom visited, as they are only accessible by an hour-long trip via snowmobile from the small New Harbor field camp.
Canada Glacier from Lake Fryxell, Antarctica
acrylic, oil and wax on high-density urethane
2017
A section of the Canada Glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys made from 162 source photos taken on site fairly close to the face. The photos were processed into a 3D file, edited in 3D imaging software, and carved on a CNC (computer-controlled) router. I added additional hand carving and painted it.
Canada Glacier from Lake Fryxell, Antarctica
archival pigment print
2015/2017
A section of the massive, spired 60-foot-high side of the Canada Glacier photographed from the frozen surface of Lake Fryxell.
Cloudburst, Erebus Ice Tongue Cave, Antarctica
archival pigment print
2015/2017
Crystals hang from an interior ceiling just inside the cave entrance.
The Erebus ice tongue is the end of a glacier that extends onto the sea ice on McMurdo Sound. A small opening in the tongue leads to an ice cave containing unusual and fragile ice crystal structures. It is accessible only a few weeks a year. Further back, it is pitch dark, but just inside it, the ceiling had a blue glow, illuminated by sunlight filtering through the ice.
Fractal Arch, Erebus Ice Tongue Cave, Antarctica
archival pigment print
2015/2016
The Erebus ice tongue is the end of a glacier that extends onto the sea ice on McMurdo Sound. A small opening in the tongue leads to an ice cave containing unusual and fragile ice crystal structures, accessible only a few weeks a year. I backlit these features with a lamp we brought inside.
Booking
References on request.