NYAB Event - Sasha Bezzubov “The Republic of Dust”

Sasha Bezzubov “The Republic of Dust”

The Front Room

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The Front Room Gallery presents “The Republic of Dust,” a solo exhibition of new photographs by the artist, Sasha Bezzubov. “The Republic of Dust” is a series of landscapes and portraits of foreigners and locals who coexist in the threatened environment of the Republic of Gabon’s rainforest region: a microcosm of global trade and its ruinous effects.

Bezzubov, known for his previous work addressing such subjects as global warming and natural disasters continues his investigation into the impact of humanity’s interaction with the natural environment. His photographs, shot with a large format view camera (8x10” and 5x7”) are so sharp the dried soil caking the fern leaves on the Gabonese road seems to flake off onto the floor before ones very eyes.

Bezzubov’s photographs capture the beauty of the landscape and the massive upheaval caused by the extraction industries (such as timber, rubber, manganese, among other national resources gathered from the forest and the land) on the tropical forests in the Republic of Gabon, considered on of the worlds most precious ecosystems.

In Bezzubov’s photographs one can see the rainforest is now crisscrossed by logging roads that cut deep into the interior. The dust created in the wake of passing trucks, which cart enormous trees to the port, covers everything in sight. The rainforest turns deep red as the trucks leave behind clouds of dust. This dust settles on plants, smothering them and transforming their natural greens with an industrial concoction of red glow.

In Bezzubov’s Gabonese portraits an unlikely mix of locals and foreigners coexist in this forest, often with great tension. There are Gabonese villagers and indigenous Pygmies, migrant workers from neighboring countries, European technicians working in extracting industries, Chinese laborers, drug tourists, and a motley crew of conservationists, scientists, activists that come together in resource rich regions of the developing world.