Taking Measure (Limited Edition Artist's Book)

Neil Folberg's Taking Measure series, set in the vast + barren Icelandic landscape, explores the theme of human imagination and search for knowledge. The artist’s book Taking Measure comprises 32 images in an exquisitely produced hand-bound volume. Limited to 50 copies.

Reviews

Beauty & Artifice, by William Meyers
(William Meyers writes on photography for the Wall Street Journal)
"The first thing to be said about Neil Folberg’s photographs is that they are beautiful. Roger Scruton, the British philosopher, says in his book Beauty that “...beauty demands to be noticed,” and Folberg’s pictures certainly command our attention.

"The elements of nature may be a given, but there is a sense in which Nature does not exist until it is designated as such, and certainly in paintings and photographs Nature is as much an artifice as the built environment. Folberg’s constant theme has been man’s place in Nature, and his consciousness of it. Scruton does not say in his book what beauty is, but he describes its effects; he says, “...beauty makes a claim on us: it is a call to renounce our narcissism and look with reverence on the world.” Roger Scruton could be talking about Neil Folberg’s photographs."

Neil Folberg: Taking Measure, by Stefanie Ball
"Taking Measure is a series of photographs by Neil Folberg that further investigates themes that have recurred throughout his career. The photographs in this series explore the relationship between man, nature and the cosmos and are an extension of Celestial Nights, an earlier series.

"For the first time in his professional career, Folberg includes himself in the photographs. This shift signals a more direct assertion of a theme that in one way or another has continued throughout his work—the space where heaven and earth become one. Whether in the physical form or in a more symbolic one, Folberg’s images explore the limitless possibilities of life, our imaginations, and the universe beyond our reach.

"Folberg traveled to the Faroe Islands in 2015 to photograph a solar eclipse. In doing so, he noted that while photographing it he experienced the enormity of such a natural phenomenon but was unable to see the full eclipse due to cloud-ridden skies. Prohibited from witnessing the eclipse due to weather conditions led him to investigate the balance, or imbalance, between man and nature—creation, transcendence, universality and the impermanence of our existence. The first image in the book, Clockwork Universe made during the solar eclipse, symbolically begins this journey, guiding Folberg to take measure along the way."