Alia Malley - Southland Statement

SOUTHLAND

These images are from a current series of work, Southland, that I began in 2009. They mark my
continued interest in making photographs that explore the environment and our ambiguous
relationship to it.

On the one hand, these images are invested in a specific sense of place: the Los Angeles
landscape of currently dis-used spaces. These discarded sites have historically been considered
civically or culturally valuable. Considering the cyclical nature of time and renewal, they will, at
some point in the future, once again regain a useful vitality of some sort. Currently, however, they
lie fallow.

The generic, lack of specificity of these “in-between” sites is equally compelling in the larger
conversation; they donʼt necessarily read as Los Angeles, or California, or even America. They
could be anywhere. Which they may as well be; these remnant land-tracts are everywhere.

At one end of the spectrum, these images exemplify a classic example of natureʼs grandeur and
benign beauty. In counterpoint to this benevolence lies a darker undercurrent. The relationship
between the two is charged, hard to pin down. Ultimately though, they are two sides to the same
coin. This interests me.

I consider these photos revisionist landscapes. They exist in the space between traditional,
historical landscape painting and vehemently realist photographs—they are documents of our
time, showing us what this place look liked one a certain day at a certain time. I donʼt set out with
a specific agenda to address a specific issue when I walk out into the landscape with my camera.
I just go and I look, and then report back.

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