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photographer focusing on ecology and environmentalism.
Originally, Forsgren began his college experience
in pursuit of a biologist career. At attended Bowdoin College, a small liberal
arts school in Maine. Within his senior year, he began to realize his passion
was photography, originally of black and white film. With this, he would take
time to explore the environment, his other passion, with his camera in hopes of
happening upon found intimate gardens, for example his twisting tree
photograph.
Forsgren was offered a job with a focus of
biology and ecology Australia post graduation. After time at his job, he
realized science wasn’t his utmost passion, art was. This discovery resulted in
his leave from his job and the start of his backpacking in Australia to begin
his career.
Upon returning home to Ohio, he found interest in
the Fenway Victory Gardens in Boston, MA. This garden was much different than
what he was previously use to, being that his garden was not a park yet just in
the middle of a city. Here, he discovered his passion in creating large
landscapes within small landscapes.
After Boston, Forsgren had the opportunity to
travel to Cuba as an archeological photographer in hopes of discovering more
small garden communities. Following this opportunity, he received a grant
allowing him to travel to Mongolia. Due to the severely cold climate (negative
degreed in February), they have minimal outdoor plant growing. Most of their
plants are grown in greenhouses, including cabbage, onions, potatoes, carrots,
and upon occasions, cucumbers. Here he had the opportunity to photograph the
small amounts of growth available within this climate, which is a different
view of plant growth than he has been previously accustomed to. This project was
stunted upon his return to Washington DC where he began his new project.
Due to his interest in field guides, a
mix between art and science, he began a new project photographing differing
species of birds in the act of being caught up in netting. This series was
typographic, in which he held his flash and background constant.
After quite the cultural experience in
photography, Forsgren attended graduate school in the Czech Republic, receiving
free education due to his connections. Following this, he moved from
typographic work and experimented with wet paint photography, in which he used
in his pseudo lunar landscape. Here, his Bowdoin thesis was finally put to use
in his use of the effects of digital technology on landscapes. Here, he used
the text of his thesis as a component in his work, forming it to an image y
making it visually similar to that of old camera noise and joined with a
clouded sky using lo-fi. He also created an animation replicating macular
degeneration and cataracts.
Currently, as a visiting professor here
at St.Mary’s College of Maryland Forsgren teaches photography to liberal arts
students. In his stare time, he attempts to continue with his quirky riddle
photography, such as Pacman Orange. He also is working on his collection, Unusual
Weight, depicting images such as Styrofoam trash and Styrofoam rocks. Forsgren
carries his camera everywhere in hopes to find time to explore the county and
discover its treasure so he can share them to the world through his
photographed interpretations.
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