Rick Giles’s photographs work as a form of social documentation while exploring man’s absorbing relationship with nature.

His series 'Unearthed' (2010) investigates man’s complex relationship with the natural world through discarded objects. After working the land on his farm in Connecticut over the past few years, the artist dug up items left behind by the numerous generations who occupied the land before him. Each find divulges a small snippet of history from territory’s past; from farming tools to children’s toys, one line of a forgotten narrative is visually retold. He photographed each object through glass panels he found during the project. Creating distance between the object and viewer, the artefacts seem to have been photographed through the earth from which they come from and emerge as ethereal relics beautifully burdened with time and memory. He explores the effects of history, geography and time on manmade items while simultaneously investigating man’s footprint on the earth.

Giles is attuned to his environment, capturing the temporal nature of his surroundings. His photograph, 'Last Gasp' (2011) reflects the physical and atmospheric changes transpiring in the environment. An ephemeral cloud floats above the arid desert reflecting the lack of rain and a transforming climate. In his series 'Light' (2009), Giles explores the intensity of light. Photographing light patterns seeping into his barn, Giles seizes its inescapable power and beauty. '23.5̊' (2010) is the earth’s axis of rotation which gives way to changing seasons and temperatures on earth. Over the course of a year, Giles documented the presence of changing seasons on the seven acres of land where he lives. Like a prism, Giles abstracts each image allowing each of the four seasons to be defined by the colours and hues present at specific times of year. Through studying the cycle of nature, he illuminates the impact and process of everything eventually returning to the earth.

Rick was born in England in 1969 and now lives in New Milford, Connecticut.