Peter Wiarda is a lens-based artist specializing in architectural, interior, abstract, and experimental photography. Interested in the craft from an early age, Peter made the leap from casual hobbyist to aspiring professional when he decided to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography at Utah State University. There, Peter developed a typologic and topographic style that became the basis of several bodies of work, including his upcoming photobook, “Urban Calm.” At the same time, he explored and created abstract image-making techniques in order to visually represent his soundto-color synæsthesia, eventually leading to an immersive solo show integrating photography and music.
After earning his BFA in 2014, Peter moved to Salt Lake City, where he found new inspiration in its environmental challenges. Peter developed a digital photographic technique to visually represent the air quality index (AQI) and has produced a series of environmentally-themed works using this technique. Peter has also taken an interest in local history and documentary photography, recording the changes in a rapidly-gentrifying industrial neighborhood between 2018 and the present.
Peter has participated in numerous group exhibitions both locally and online, and has hosted two solo shows in Salt Lake City. He currently resides in Salt Lake City with his illustrator, muralist, and fashion designer wife Jessica, and their 10 to 12 fish.
ARTIST STATEMENT
AQI 151, or Air Quality Index 151 represents a level of pollution that is unhealthy for everyone. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns that at AQI 151, “everyone may begin to experience health effects, and members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects”. These photographs were made during the night of December 4, 2019, when Salt Lake City’s AQI measured the highest in the nation. Five digital photographs are arranged in a pinwheel pattern that illustrates the cyclical relationship between transportation, industry, and growth. Composed in the shadow of freeway ramps in Salt Lake’s urban-industrial core, the photographs depict various forms of infrastructure illuminated by the glow of electric lights reflecting off heavy smog. A digital processing technique that amplifies the noise generated by shooting with a high ISO setting visualizes the microscopic particulate matter in the air. In addition, the high ISO allowed for the use of a relatively fast shutter speed to avoid motion blur on the vehicles, highlighting each one as an individual contributor to the poor air quality. Salt Lake City is a large transportation hub with converging freeways, sprawling rail yards, an international airport, and a soon-to-be-built inland port. Emissions from the vehicles that frequent these systems, especially cars and trucks, are biggest source of air pollution in the valley. The area’s geography contributes to the propensity for pollution to gather, especially in the winter when a weather pattern known as inversion traps cold air and smog in the valley. As we continue to increase our industrial and transportation infrastructure, filling the roads and tracks with more polluting vehicles, we can only expect the air quality index to increase with it.
LINKS
https://www.peterwiarda.com
https://www.instagram.com/peter_wiarda/
IMAGES
Peter Wiarda, “AQI 151,” 2022, digital photographs on aluminum panels, 38 x 38 in.
Peter Wiarda, “AQI 151 (detail)” 2022, digital photographs on aluminum panels, 12 x 24 in.
Peter Wiarda, “AQI 151 (detail),” 2022, digital photographs on aluminum panels, 24 x 12 in.
Peter Wiarda, “A Death In The Family,” 2021, digital photographs on aluminum panels, 25 x 68 in.
Peter Wiarda, “A Death In The Family (detail 1),” 2021, digital photographs on aluminum panels, 25 x 20 in.
Peter Wiarda, “A Death In The Family (detail 1),” 2021, digital photographs on aluminum panels, 25 x 20 in.
Peter Wiarda, “Still Life with Cliff and Trees,”
digital photograph on aluminum panel, 20 x 22
in.
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Categories: Photography | Utah Artists - W
