WHEN THE TREES ARE GONE
Surroundings play a dominant role in shaping our experience. I treasure the city and try to make space for quiet contemplation within it. The question of the struggle between nature and the built environment is ever more central in urban life. In this series, relaxed beachgoers find themselves amidst carefully composed urban settings in front of dramatic skies. They are searching without seeming to find what they are looking for. Peaceful moments of strolling along the beach or standing listening to the waves while choosing the perfect spot to sit down, are inevitably infused with tension and frustration. The beach becomes rising tides, threatening the very foundation of the city. The clash of nature and city results in an absurd profusion of visual noise and little relief. The resulting images lay bare the illusory nature of my urban fantasy and the problematic nature of the future that lies ahead for humanity.
Tokyo International Foto Awards, Jurors Top 5, Susan Baraz
”I love, love this series - the concept and the execution of it. All cohesive in style and a simply brilliant eye to carry it out.”
2020 Rfotofolio Selections, selected by juror Paula Tognarelli
”I chose When the Trees Are Gone because of its imaginative nature. The word that comes to mind when I look at these photographs is ‘bellwether’. Absurdity is in the wind in these photographs and isn’t it though?”
International Photo Awards, Jurors Top 5, Susan Spiritus
”Original work; speaks to the moment and well crafted!”
Deutsche Fotografische Akademie jury member Ruth Stoltenberg about ‘When the Trees Are Gone’:
‘Bathers between concrete, steel, and glass. Fragile creatures in modern urban space in search of a place to bathe or sunbathe. "When the Trees are Gone" is the title of the photo series by the American photographer Diana Cheren Nygren from Boston, Massachusetts. And because trees and green spaces are rare in the densely populated cities, their inhabitants find these recreational areas on the roofs of the high-rise buildings. Deep puddles have formed here in some places and the heavy clouds in the sky still bear witness to the rain and with their drama are an important design element. In this concentrated architecture, the people with their bathing utensils appear bizarre in sometimes frighteningly dangerous places, as if they did not belong here. And yet they all find the right position in Diana Cheren Nygren's complex pictorial compositions, almost as if they were placed right there. Theatrical stagings in front of carefully composed urban backdrops.’
Life Framer, Open Call, Editor’s Pick, May 2020 - “Grey Skies” from the series ‘When the Trees Are Gone’:
Editor’s comment: “The framing and composition are quite unorthodox – the car half in/half out, the square crop, the subject not quite on the third – but that only adds to the theme of the image—the struggle to find balance between the human-made world of concrete and boxes and the natural world beckoning beyond. Excellent storytelling.”
Domusweb.it, 30 July 202 - “The photographic tale of a dystopian summer without trees” Romina Totaro
”The photographic collages by American artist Diana Cheren Nygren paint the summer rituals of a metropolitan city irreparably transformed by the climate crisis…. These urban scenographies, full of elements normalize, in an unexpected way, moments of a life overturned by climate change, images that for now appear to our eyes only the umpteenth apocalyptic dystopia.”
Features:
All About Photo
Graine de Photographe
All About Photo
FotoNostrum Magazine
Broad Magazine
SxSE Magazine
Rfotofolio
Cities 7
Float Magazine
Artdoc Magazine
iLeGaLiT
Domus Mag Online
Photonews
Deutsche Fotografische Akademie
Square Magazine
Dek Unu
Midwest Center for Photography Portfolio Platform
Awards:
Special Mention, 2020 Urbanautica Institute Awards
Fine Art Runner Up, OpenImage Barcelona 2020
Finalist, Hopper Prize, 2020
Juror Top 5, 2020 Tokyo International Foto Awards, juror Susan Baraz
Discovery of the Year, 1st Place Portfolio, Gold Fine Art/Collage, Gold Portfolio/Fine Art, Silver Science/Environment, 2020 Tokyo International Foto Awards
First Place, This Land is Your Land, LA Photo Curator, 2021, juror Dianne Yudelson
Silver, Fine Art/Collage, 2020 Budapest International Foto Awards
Juror Top 5, 2020 International Photo Awards, juror Susan Spiritus
Honorable Mention, -scapes, PH21 Gallery
2nd Place Fine Art/Collage, 2020 International Photo Awards
Merit Winner, 2020 Rfotofolio Selections, juror Paula Tognarelli
Bronze Fine Art/Digitally Enhanced, PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris, 2020
Critical Mass Top 200, 2020
Finalist, Urban2020
Finalist, Fresh 2020, Klompching Gallery
Grand prize in photography, Art Saves Humanity, See.Me
Honorable mention - Conceptual Photography, 10th Annual International Photography Competition, Florida Museum of Photography
Best in show, Nurture/Nature, Arlington Center for the Arts, juror Laura McPhee