Looking for meaning in the NM landscape

Roi Kuper is an Israeli landscape photographer and UNM’s first artist in residence. He has worked in England, France, Spain and Scotland. 

“Whenever I go somewhere to photograph landscapes, it’s not that I’m looking for an interesting landscape to photograph,” Kuper said. “I already know there is something interesting at the particular area, and I go there to find more interesting things within the landscape.”

Kuper will give a lecture today at 5:30 p.m. at the UNM Art Museum.
For his latest project, Kuper will photograph the Southwest and display his work at the gallery.

Kuper said he began photographing 25 years ago in his homeland. One of his first projects, titled “Summer Day,” was a collection of photographs taken in the Israeli countryside in the summer.

Kuper said the theme of the project was a regular day in which people relax and don’t have a care in the world.

“My projects don’t have a particular theme. Each one changes from project to project,” he said.

Kuper said he enjoys photography because it helps him re-examine certain artistic aspects of life that he normally wouldn’t reconsider. He said a photo can be as expressive as the photographer wants it to be.

“You can say what you want,” he said. “It’s a way to clear the dust from your beliefs.”

Kuper has taught at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and the Camera Obscura School of Art in Tel Aviv. He now teaches at the Academy of Shenkar in Ramat Gan, Israel. 

“I teach students how to think photography and understand it, how to get what you want,” he said. “The combination between photography and culture is the music, books, movies, everything about a culture that makes a culture a culture.”

Kuper said he likes to meet students and teach them about photography and his work. 
“When I go to photograph a landscape that catches my interest, one of the things I try to capture is the beauty of the landscape,” he said.

BOX:
Roi Kuper
Lecture
“Notes from Abroad: Thoughts on Israeli Landscape”
UNM Art Museum
Today, 5:30 p.m.

 
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