Rotterdam Photo: Uschi Groos

Rotterdam Photo: Uschi Groos by Sara BennettMarch 27, 2023

©Uschi Groos, Volcanic eruption seen from 2500 meters, illuminating clouds through Valva river, uncontrolled force of nature

The theme of this year’s Rotterdam Photo, an annual photography festival, was “Freedom Redefined,” and I was lucky enough to exhibit 34 prints from my work on women with life sentences, both inside prison and after they’ve regained their freedom. This week Lenscratch is dedicated to featuring five photographers whose work caught my eye.

First up is Uschi Groos, whose stunningly gorgeous photos, made in Iceland, show that we are “unable to control nature, no matter how hard we try.”

©Uschi Groos, installation, Iceland, connecting the continents of the North American plate and the Eurasian. country type

1,7 cm p.a.

1,7 cm p.a. refers to what is called the Continental Drift: the movement of the tectonic plates on our planet, which causes the continents to shift. This phenomenon is of poetic importance to me, because it shows that even the steady ground below our feet is not static, but subject to forces too vast for us to fathom.

As I was working on this project, I felt how small humanity is in the face of these natural processes. I travelled to Iceland, to places where the Drift becomes visible, and made installations that accentuate this movement. These installations include demarcations of the breaking lines with yellow ribbon, in some cases literally bridging the cracks in the planet.

©Uschi Groos, lava bomb, 300 years old. force of nature

Uschi Groos, born on a farm in rural post-war Germany, lives and works as a freelance photographer in Germany and she also runs an artist residency, Casa Tagumerche, on the Spanish island of La Gomera. . Her work has been shown in solo and groups shows in national and international galleries and has been featured in magazines worldwide.

Follow Uschi Groos on Instagram: @uschigroos