* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Kim Keever creates large-scale photographs by meticulously constructing miniature topographies in a 200-gallon tank, which is then filled with water.
These dioramas of fictitious environments are brought to life with colored lights and the dispersal of pigment, producing ephemeral atmospheres that are quickly captured with his large-format camera. Combining the real and the imaginary, he documents of places that do not exist but are somehow familiar.
Keever’s panoramas represent a continuation of the landscape tradition, as well as an evolution in painting. Referencing a broad history of landscape painting, especially that of Romanticism, Hudson River School and Luminism, they are imbued with a sense of the sublime.
"The artist Kim Keever has one of the more elaborate and unusual creative processes of which I am aware. He constructs meticulous environments underwater to photograph as landscapes. For me, what is most interesting is the psychological aspect of this process. He is literally creating his own world within a glass space like an alchemical retort. This is very different than taking a picture of a landscape and adding a title to mean something. Keever's images have a haunting and mysterious quality and, now that I have seen his studio and working process, they remind me of the outer wing's of Hieronymus Bosch's the Garden of Earthly Delight Altarpiece, which depicts the 3rd day of creation. Be sure to check out the links to interviews about his studio on his website."