On Tuesday, June 24, 2025, at 11.30 a.m., Joseph Gallivan interviews landscape photographer Mike Vos (pronounced VOSS) about his show “FRAGILE, TENUOUS WORLDS,” which is on now at Laura Vincent Design and Gallery through the end of July 2025.
Vos uses large format photography to superimpose two images on one Kodak film negative to suggest connections between different places. He talks about the persistence of abandoned buildings in nature, and visiting all 50 states, including his final one, Alaska, which features heavily in this show.
This show was recorded on June 17, 2025, on an iPhone 16 with a Rode microphone. It was edited by KBOO volunteer Liam Gallivan.
From the press release:
MIKE VOS FRAGILE, TENUOUS WORLDS
“I’m not a materialist or a deist or anything else. I’m a man who one day opened the window and discovered this crucial thing: Nature exists. I saw that the trees, the rivers and the stones are things that truly exist…” -Alberto Caeiro (Fernando Pessoa), 1914
These 4x5 film photographs were made over the course of several years all over the U.S. and Canada, and developed with the help of many artist residencies, individual artists and strangers I met in my travels. All of these images were created using in-camera exposures, meaning everything was done within the camera and nothing was altered or combined using the help of computers or any kind of post-process. This is an important part of my work, as it helps me to develop a deeper connection to the landscape and it forces me to work in tandem with my manual camera to capture the raw impression of a place. During the 3 years I created this series I visited some of the most isolated areas of North America, which was an exciting and sometimes dangerous experience, though I am grateful for every part of it.
These photos were made during a time when I was traveling and exploring the relationship between the natural and human-made landscapes, trying to find both the coalescence and conflict that is inherent therein. Though each image is part of a larger series, I wanted each of them to contain their own story as well, which is both independent yet connected to the larger whole. This is similar to the way I see our human relationship being connected to nature, tacitly but from a mental and physical distance.
Literature is a big part of my creative process, as it helps me to create visual narratives that are more relatable to our human experience. It is a great challenge to create ecocentric work that we as humans can connect with, as you may notice that there are no humans present in any of my works. Many of the ideas for my photographic work stem from publications within the movements of Magical Realism and Surrealism, though I now think of my images more like what Cuban author Alejo Carpentier referred to as Lo Real Maravilloso, or the ‘Marvelous Real’. Lo Real Maravilloso is something that is rooted in the commonplace and typical, but simultaneously unusual and bizarre. In the years I spent traveling to create this body of work I have witnessed and experienced things that are simultaneously ordinary, unusual and even border on the supernatural. I want to emphasize that literature has not encouraged me to explore an imagined world, it instead has helped me to explore the idea that there are other layers within or alongside our own. As I create both exposures in-camera, there’s a chaotic element to what I create. I can guide various elements together as a composer in tandem with my camera, but there are always unpredictable phenomena. As this series evolved I began to think of this as a sort of cooperation with the environments I photograph. It took a patient and intentional interaction with the land even before I set up my camera, and occasionally I would opt to never hit the shutter, leaving that image and impression existing only in my head.
There are people who find solace in the profound silence of vast and open spaces, but there are many for which nature is merely an abstraction, something they struggle to relate to. My goal as an artist is to help facilitate a deeper, personal connection to wildlife for you, the viewer. I desire to capture not only the visual experience of seeing these places firsthand, but the emotional impact as well. These fragile, tenuous worlds are real places that I have seen, and places that my camera captured. They exist in our world and alongside us, and what that means for the present and future is up to you as an individual to consider.
Mike Vos (b. 1986) is a photographer, visual artist and musician from Portland, OR.
Drawing inspiration from various literary movements and themes, Vos uses traditional and experimental 4x5 film techniques, multi-channel video, field recordings and instrumentation to craft complex narratives that advocate for the preservation of wild spaces. Constantly pushing the capabilities of film photography, analog video and sound, Vos creates immersive experiences to draw viewers into surreal representations of physical places. Much like variant adaptations of the same subject matter, he interprets landscapes into ethereal and otherworldly dreamscapes to capture the awe and wonder that exists in nature.
Vos has been awarded artist residencies at esteemed institutions such as MASS MoCA, The Akureyri Art Museum in Akureyri, Iceland, Bær Arts Center in Hofsós, Iceland, Cobertizo in Mexico, Vermont Studio Center, Jentel Arts in Wyoming, and in his home state of Oregon: Caldera Arts and The Sitka Center for Art & Ecology.
His work is part of the permanent collections for the city of Portland, Oregon, LÁ Art Museum in Hveragerði, Iceland and many others. He has received support from grants through the Regional Arts & Culture Council, The Ford Family Foundation, The Puffin Foundation and the Oregon Arts Commission.
In 2024 Vos released his debut monograph ‘Somewhere in Another Place’ through Buckman Publishing. In 2025 he was awarded a photography fellowship with the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology and helped develop a teaching program for rural youth across Oregon state.
https://lvdesignandgallery.com/artists/81-mike-vos/overview/
Linhof large format cameras https://linhof.com/en/linhof-m-679cs/
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Joseph Gallivan has been a reporter since 1990. He has covered music for the London Independent, Technology for the New York Post, and arts and culture for the Portland Tribune and for Axios Portland. He is the author of two novels, "Oi, Ref!" and "England All Over" which are available lightly used.