Reforestation, 2007, by David Ondrik

Albuquerque denizen David Ondrik is in search of the sublime. As he defines it, "the sublime is a combination of the grotesque and the beautiful". Using a Holga 120S camera, Ondrik creates musing landscape images of New Mexico.

From his artists statement, he writes:

In artistic expressions of the Sublime from the 19th century, man is small, in awe of and overwhelmed by the purity and enormity of Nature. The sublime in the 21st century has "transcended" this. It is no longer possible for man to be in a Romantic fog, far removed from the muck. I am no longer awe struck by the great vastness of untouched wilderness, were it even possible to find such a place. I am instead awestruck standing on the precipice above a drought-stricken reservoir, a superfund site, an (utterly avoidable) forest fire. These consequences of modernity are what make me feel small and powerless.

Ondrik's approach is a fitting foil to fellow contender Erin Tyner. Both are concerned with the scale of things--Ondrik by the enormity of Nature, and Tyner with the miniature bittersweetness of daily life.