My work environment is the cockpit of a Boeing 747. To fly away from daylight, into the night. Passing over ethereal, weightless clouds and fog banks away into the ink black darkness, around mile high thunderstorm clouds filled with unknown energy, straight on into the sunrise. To discover the first glimpse of the sunlight, its red reflection glowing on the Himalaya peaks. A night flight over the pitch black Atlantic but no, it is never completely dark, you always can see the horizon, the stars and sometimes the moon are the companions on my way over the water. These moments, interwoven with the highly dynamic environment of the cockpit, with its clocks and displays, indicators, switches and buttons are the ingredients of my works. When reading and interpreting the instruments, an artificial world is projected into the reality. This artificial reality is our key to safely navigate in darkness and clouds without visual reference to earth. These indications show us airspeed, altitude or engine parameter. They have throughout their form of depiction and function an exciting esthetic. We are completely depending on this artificial world. It is impossible to represent time and space. But the snapshot of the immobile speed indicator means, that at this moment the airplane moved a couple of hundreds of meters. That means the day, flying towards the east, is shortened, towards the west is extended. Passing over the date line the day is renewed. To capture this paradox in a photo and make it visible, is one of the reasons why I grab my camera. This tension between nature and technology constitute the matter of a newly defined abstraction. The digital photography provides the tools to depict a moment in my life with a picture, the way I saw it or wished it to be. My pictures start in my thoughts and there will be the moment when nature or my work environment will free them. I can wait.
Christian Block
