Mathias Bader - STONES

STONES

Portrait of an island

A collection of photographed stones, portrayed during visits to the same island. Every stone tells a story. They record the narrative of the surrounding terrain, shaped and continually reshaped by its geology. These stones speak of the foundation on which everything is grounded.

Only mountain peaks remains, a relic of sunken land. Returning year after year, I form a relationship with the landscape and its protagonists. A continuous, dynamic process unfolds: birth, erosion, metamorphosis creating the conditions for this habitat. I wander in search of stones, silent witnesses of eternal creation. In a temporary open-air studio, I illuminate their character in natural daylight, staged as in a temporary shrine. An exposure is made on analog film. The stone is then returned to its origin, while the negatives are transformed into positive prints. Together they form a collection of time travelers, each in a unique state of being — voices telling the story of an island.