maps and legends

„The Landscape, as we have come to
recognize and expect it, is seldom seen.“
1990 -

Andrew Phelps seeks answers to identity and the meaning of other place through his on-going project MAPS and LEGENDS, photographs from his experiences in the deserts of the Southwest of America. This other is a place he once thought of as home. It is a place of horizons; literally and figuratively.

The whole world knows about cowboys and the American West. The myths grew up out of the land and then transformed the landscape itself so that it speaks to us in mythic terms. The cowboys of Hollywood were real for Andrew, they were his grandfather, his father, and their friends. They embodied the cliche´d yet honorable qualities of hard work and ingenuity. The Marlboro Man was his neighbour, not a billboard along a highway.
Andrew’s vision has never been hemmed in; he knows how to see far when looking at the ordinary. The mysterious qualities that one feels in the work is an intuitive knowledge earned in a barren environment.

Tamarra Kaida
from Distant Horizons

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