23 august 2024, Flor Linckens
Bryan Schutmaat: a symbiotic relationship between life and landscape in the American West
At Unseen (20-22 September), Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen will showcase the work of Bryan Schutmaat, an American documentary photographer celebrated for his evocative portraits, still lifes and landscapes, with a particular focus on the American West. His still lifes delve into the lives of those living on the peripheries of society, both in a social and geographical sense.
To capture these narratives, Schutmaat ventures into remote mountain villages, mining towns and other locations steeped in industrial history. Equipped with a large-format camera, he brings individuals into focus who often feel unseen, in many ways shaped by the landscape they inhabit. His photography is infused with a deep sense of curiosity, respect and empathy, always in pursuit of an honest human connection.
Schutmaat’s palette sometimes manifests in shades of gray, other times in muted greens and grays with a single colour that stands out. Occasionally, he exchanges his large-format camera for a more practical, compact model, as seen in his images of deserted rural roads during the pandemic or in his series “Good Goddamn”, in which he documented his friend Kris during his final days of freedom before serving a five-year prison sentence. In his series “Sons of the Living”, Schutmaat portrays individuals who have broken away from conventional lifestyles: drifters and hitchhikers navigating the evolving landscape of the American Southwest. He views them as a symptom of an economic system that exhausts both the land and its people. Amidst the backdrop of environmental decline, economic dispossession and societal neglect, this series depicts the human capacity for endurance. At our critical moment in history, as we witness but fail to understand the frailty of our ecology, economy, and social stability, “Sons of the Living” creates an atmospheric narrative that foreshadows the risks of our society’s current path. The work both honours and subverts the American photographic road trip tradition with an updated view of the 21st century’s ‘open road’, that addresses a new era of anxiety.
Schutmaat’s photography is distinguished not only by its technical precision but also by the rich, unspoken stories embedded within his images. The artist is captivated by the symbiotic relationship between human beings and the landscapes they inhabit, exploring how they mutually shape and influence one another. His work captures not just the beauty of the landscape but also reveals the destructive traces of human activity. The notion of the American West as an untamed wilderness often lingers only as a nostalgic ideal, surviving in the collective imagination rather than as a lived reality, as the landscape has increasingly come under human control. Schutmaat frequently photographs the remnants of what has been lost, aiming to preserve and deconstruct the remnants of a bygone era. His images show the often harsh realities of the rural American West, once defined by mining, agriculture and logging, and now grappling with economic decline.
Bryan Schutmaat, Sons of the Living, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen
Although Schutmaat originally studied History, his approach to the landscape is intuitive rather than academic. He aims to capture the emotional qualities of the landscape and its inhabitants. Schutmaat often draws inspiration from literature rooted in the region, such as the poetry of Richard Hugo, who situated much of his work in Montana. Additionally, Schutmaat finds influence in the memories and pop culture of his youth and the era just preceding it. Through his work, Schutmaat offers not only a glimpse into the forgotten corners of the American West but also a profound exploration of universal themes such as time, decay, resilience and the complexity of what it means to be human.
Bryan Schutmaat was born in 1983 in Houston and currently resides in Austin, Texas. After earning a bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Houston, he pursued a master’s in Photography at the University of Hartford. Schutmaat has received numerous accolades, including the Aperture Portfolio Prize and a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. This ‘Guggenheim Grant’ is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated ‘exceptional capabilities in the fields of science, literature, art or education’. His work is included in the collections of institutions such as the Rijksmuseum, SFMoMA, Harvard Art Museums, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Schutmaat has published four photobooks: Grays the Mountain Sends (2013), Islands of the Blest (2014), Good Goddamn (2017), and County Road (2023). They won the artist several awards.
Bryan Schutmaat, Sons of the Living, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen
