DAY 238

PHOTOGRAPHIC CURIOSITIES

Eerie Solitude

THE DARK LANDSCAPES OF RYNO DE WET

“Storm clouds hung in a leaden sky, yet there was a curious stillness, with no wind stirring the reed-patches. The whole atmosphere of the place exuded such chill eeriness that it was a relief to turn back and be linked again to humanity.”

—Witchcraft and Folklore of Dortmoor, Ruth E. St. Leger-Gordon.¹

The above description of the desolation and solitude of the moors of Cornwall is equally applicable to the mythical, dystopian landscapes created by Johann Ryno de Wet. Through a unique mixture of analog photography and digital editing, the South African photographer creates scenes that are based in reality but depict a disturbing, inverse dimension of reality—a dark parody of our own existence.

While many of Ryno de Wet’s works involve urban settings, they are typically devoid of human presence, presenting a bleak, apocalyptic no-man’s land. There is a harsh, post-human emptiness to the images, reminiscent of the future planet Earth depicted by H. G. Wells in The Time Machine: Millions of years after the demise of humanity, the planet resembles an uninhabited, barren moonscape.

Rather than being overtly menacing, many of these scenes evoke more subtle undertones of eerie disquiet. And yet, for all their lifelessness, there is a haunting beauty to be found in the desolation of these dreamscapes. —DJS