Perfect Mountain, 2011

Single channel video, aspect ratio 16:9, 9 min 36 sec, stereo sound
30 Photographs, size variable

Perfect Mountain examines the production and construction of memories in the context of mass tourism and mountain industries.

High up on an alpine glacier, a photostudio produces portraits of an endless stream of visiting tourists, most on their grand European tour from Middle and Far Eastern countries. Temporarily slipping into the guise of an alpine farmer each person or group is posed in front of a photo-wallpaper of the very mountain they are in fact standing on top of.

Perfect Mountain questions notions of an ideal, a search for perfection both of experience and its representation through photography. The video observes the process of the photograph’s construction, its precision of staging and the detail of direction and instruction given by the photographer to her subjects. These photographs, each unique yet a facsimile of countless others, travel to their sitters’ home to be cherished, displayed and shared. In the vernacular production and use of these images, one idea of the exotic meets another, and in the process the endless succession of photographs pose questions on cultural identity, memory and the mountains as a framing device for experiences.