Marlene Breitenstein
Sexten Dolomites (Series)
DESCRIPTION
The Dolomites are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in South Tyrol, northeast Italy. This mountain range is not only famous for its exceptional beauty, it is a unique geological formation, remarkable for the ancient, pale dolomite limestone from which much of the mountains are composed.
First described in a 1791 publication by naturalist Diedonnè-Silvain-Guy-Tancrede de Gvalet de Dolomieu, dolomite's composition was non-reactive to acids, a great geological mystery. Unraveling its history was informed by the work of Charles Darwin, and many other scientists.
Pangaea, Earth's single supercontinent of 260 million years ago, is the original source of these mountains. Then an arid desert, gradually the land fell and was submerged in the ocean. Tropical oceanic atolls, archipelagos, and lagoons formed, friendly to life just above and below the water. Remnants of this life eventually became debris settling in the lagoons, and slowly became rock.
Over millennia, immense volcanic eruptions tore the region, tectonic plates moved and were uplifted, and the rock became the Dolomites as we know them today. The mountains are replete with fossils, evidence of their long history.
All of these photos were taken in the Sexten Dolomites mountain range and nature preserve, in October, 2023.
AUTHOR
BETTER SOCIAL MEDIA: https://glass.photo/BreitensteinArt
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Marlene Breitenstein explores and manipulates nature’s sensual colors, imparting an altered, dreamlike feeling to her naturalistic photography. Currently, her subjects are the forests, mountains, vistas, and vineyards found in Central and Southern Europe.
Our planet’s beauty can seem otherworldly. When presented with breathtaking loveliness or strangeness, we are transfixed by what is both real, yet unreal. Awe is a marker of life’s peak experiences, those transcendental moments distinct from everyday life. Abraham Maslow posited that the paramount state of Self-Actualization—achieving one’s potential—is reached through frequent peak experiences, those “rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality, and are even mystic and magical in their effect upon the experimenter.”
When photographing and creating, Ms. Breitenstein is transformed by such a state of meditative or ecstatic wonder, imbuing her work with quiet astonishment. Her intent is to spark viewers to seek and create opportunities for their own peak experiences, opening and losing themselves by being truly present in any remarkable moment.
EXHIBIT: 2024 — Wonder — Center for Fine Art Photography, CO
BIO: German > American > German (multinational, double-immigrant). Re-emerging artist.
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