Francesca Tamse
Neo Ancient Sites
Edition of 100, first edition
The self-published book employs discarded transparency slides to find photographic and photo-realistic representations of ancient sites, monuments and artifacts. They depict the beginnings of an agricultural societies such as Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica and continue forward examining the past in an art historical context. Tamse photographs in the American West with the intention of finding formalistic connection with ancient ruin.
Since its invention, photography has documented ‘exotic,’ and arcane destinations as a way of reaching to wider audience, simulating the feeling of being transported and longing for travel and adventure. Tamse creates an overlaying of different time with the appropriated images of the ancient sites and her own photographs taken in 2012-2013. The layering of images zoom in and out at different perspectives, focusing on the vastness of space and then to look at the fine detail of raw material as well as the elements found in these landscapes. This visual device is also apparent when looking at an image of a photographic slide contained within its own photograph.
