Camp Fire

The land of dreams continues to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Johann Ryno de Wet (Johannesburg, South Africa, 1982), and there are even more people who seem to travel through it when fully awake. There can be no other explanation for his audacious and chimeric photos. Johann effectively uses digital techniques to transform a point of departure into one of arrival that is only in his head. The Freudian concept of “unheimlich” (uncanny) is his point of departure in a tangible reality that metamorphoses until it becomes unrecognisable, out of place and menacing. Johann invents post-apocalyptic landscapes, devoid of human presence, of bleak and uneasy appearance, which are nevertheless indescribably beautiful. Contrivance has seldom been more justified than in Ryno de Wet’s work, as he opens doors for us to a truly personal fictional and imaginary world.