The series WHITE WAS THE SNOW by Thomas Wrede visualizes the melting of alpine glaciers. Wrapped in fleece cloths to protect them from the warming climate, the various materials—weathered synthetic fleece, dirty ice, and grey stones—are barely distinguishable from one another.
Outside and inside, nature and plastic blend together, yet they represent entirely different worlds. The decaying “outer skin” contrasts with the fascinating play of colors and light found in the centuries-old ice layers within the bluish shimmering ice cave.

In the series REAL LANDSCAPES, the world is depicted as a kind of model kit—a borderline between model and reality, a photographic illusion created by the absence of scale in real landscapes.
Wrede’s images oscillate between staging and documentation, with themes ranging from idyll to catastrophe. These photographs question both the essence of landscape and our perception of nature.
“For me, photography brings together thinking and feeling, seeing and remembering. To this day, I try—without resorting to digital montage techniques—to merge disparate worlds into a single image: large and small, near and far, natural and artificial, inside and outside. I aim to create visual ambiguities that are only possible in photographic images. The viewing process remains open and can inspire new ways of seeing and feeling.”

An exclusive, previously unpublished signed special edition will be released for the exhibition. The works are available for purchase.