Endor Project
Benjamin A. Monn latest photo project goes under the title of - Endor Project - and has been named after the eponymous planet in Star Wars 2 whose forests are covered by futuristic space stations. In Monns photo series, which he is developing within a work-in-progress process, the subject is real functional buildings, which similarly contrast with their immediate environment. His photography puts the building and the environment into the picture on equal terms. They document without making any value judgements. This is left to the observer. On the one hand, the observer can clearly see how devastatingly humans have attacked nature with their architecture, disregarded it and in the meantime destroyed it. On the other hand, these constructions also reflect at the same time the industrial and technical development of their times. In the sense of a historical document, they provide a record of the engineering techniques of their particular epoch. This means that dams tell the story of the early days of creating electrical current, surveillance posts and radio installations bring to mind the Cold War, solar installations look to the future of renewable energy. What motivates him is to comprehend architecture in relation to the social circumstances of each respective epoch. And, as a result, his photography documents much more than just industrial history – it relates the history of humankind.
