Download PDF - David Fried

Rainscapes
At first glance, the colorful arrays of countless water drops in Fried’s Rainscape photographs appear
to be falling galaxies - clusters of dripping light painted on the night sky. On closer inspection one
sees that they are actually photographs of pure falling rain.
Fried captures strongly individual patterns of rainfall on large format color film. Rich chromatic
variations are revealed by the prismatic effect of light passing through each individual raindrop,
evoking a spacious cosmic look. Fried’s large-scale Rainscape photographs exude a quiet replenishing
quality that unloads poetically within the viewer.
Observing what gives rise to civilizations, or may ultimately lead to their demise, Fried sees freshwater
as an issue of great importance in the 21st century. Since ancient times, with prayer and rituals
- to science and its methods, humans have wished to influence the weather, and although the
collective human pursuit has undoubtedly had profound affects on the ecosystem, we are luckily still
unable to control bigger systems such as the weather.
Rain still falls freely through the world’s trees, and harvesting hands before completing it’s cycle.
However, the human right of access to and usage of clean water is being moved into increasingly
privatized hands, servicing politics and industry more than local needs and down river ecosystems.
Fried’s Rainscapes portray sweet water at its birth and invites us to contemplate its worth as we
become its temporary custodians.
Distrubution of Fate, 2005
installation view