PROJECT STATEMENT
Fauxliage: Disguised Cell Phone Towers of the American West
Fauxliage documents the proliferation of disguised cell phone towers in the American West. By attempting to conceal an unsightly yet essential technology of the modern world, our landscapes are now sown with a quirky mosaic of masquerading palms, evergreens, flagpoles, crosses, cacti and more. But the towers are simulacra. They are water towers that hold no water, windmills that provide no power, and trees that provide no oxygen, yet they all provide five bars of service. I traveled to ten western states to photograph the variety of concealments. The towers pose the question: how much of an ersatz landscape and manufactured nature are we willing to accept in exchange for connectivity?
The often-whimsical camouflage belies the cellular equipment’s covert ability to collect all the personal data transmitted from our cell phones. Big tech and the government are always listening, storing, buying and selling our harvested information. Surveillance capitalism is big business in the internet age.
As the faux trees age, the plastic needles and fronds breakdown and litter the ground below. What started as an attempt to reduce visual pollution is now creating plastic pollution. I collected the varied leaf types and used them to create cyanotype prints — a nod to pioneering English botanist Anna Atkins who created a catalog of British algae in 1843 using the newly developed cyanotype process. I have created a similar collection for the modern world. These photograms remind us of the arc of technology in photography, computing, and communication. The typology of vintage cell phones in the exhibition harks back to the not-so-distant past and shows the diverse styles of phones that use cellular antenna towers to operate.
As the fifth generation (5G) of cellular technology continues to roll out, new cell towers will be smaller and more inconspicuous, often discreetly integrated into the tops of streetlight poles. Perhaps elaborately disguised “fauxliage” towers will start disappearing and be considered an anachronism of the early 21st century. The decorated towers could join drive-up photo kiosks, phone booths, newsstands, and drive-in movie theaters as architectural relics of the past. Coincidentally, those functionalities are all standard capabilities of our cell phones, now held in the palms of our hands.
A monograph of my Fauxliage images, published by Daylight Books, is available HERE
BIOGRAPHY
Annette LeMay Burke is a photographic artist and Northern California native who lives in the heart of Silicon Valley. A longtime observer of the evolution of the western landscape, Burke’s work is about connection to the land. She is interested in how our environment changes over time and the telltale artifacts — both tangible and temporal — that are left behind. She explores metaphorical clues in the landscape as well as her personal connections to the west. She also examines how technology links us to each other via its idiosyncratic presence in the landscape. Burke received a BA in Geology from the University of California at Berkeley. After a decade long career in high-tech, she now focuses on her artistic practice.
In 2023, Burke was a finalist for the UK’s Earth Photo competition and exhibited at London’s Royal Geographical Society. She was named the International Runner-Up for the Australian Geographic Environmental Award at the Head On Photo Festival and exhibited along the Bondi Beach Promenade in Sydney. Her work was selected for PhotoLucida’s 2022 Critical Mass Top 50 and the LensCulture Critics’ Choice 22. In 2021, she was awarded first place in the Lenscratch Vernacular Photography Exhibition, won the Imago Lisboa Photography Festival in Portugal, and was a semi-finalist for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today in Washington DC.
Burke’s work is exhibited widely throughout the US and internationally at institutions such as Center for Photographic Art in Carmel; Colorado Photographic Arts Center; Candela Gallery in Virginia; Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts; Los Angeles Center for Photography; Oceanside Museum of Art in California; HELLERAU European Centre for the Arts in Dresden, Germany; Museum of Nature in Cantabria, Spain; and Association of Photographers in London.
Her images have been featured in The New York Times, L.A. Times, The London Times, Hyperallergic, Sierra Club Magazine, Newsweek Japan, Elle Decor Italy, Fraction, All About Photo, KATALOG, Dezeen, EXIT Image and Culture, The Riv Magazine and the Daily Mail. Her work is held in public and private collections including the Wieland Collection in Atlanta and the Colorado Photographic Art Center in Denver.
Burke’s monograph, Fauxliage: Disguised Cell Phone Towers of the American West, was published by Daylight Books in 2021. Ann M. Jastrab, Executive Director of the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California, contributed the forward.
Visit website HERE
Photos by Melanie Chapman