84.1 x 59.4 cm, Edition of 6 + 1 AP
48.3 x 32.9 cm, Edition of 6 + 1 AP
Widening Circles explores the fertile territory between recognition and mystery. By removing the usual reference points of landscape photography, Wingfield invites us into a space where imagination takes precedence over certainty. Horizons disappear, scale becomes ambiguous and the landscape slips free from description. What remains is an encounter with form, colour, movement and transformation.
The series takes its title from Rainer Maria Rilke's poem Widening Circles, in which the poet describes a lifelong process of circling, questioning and becoming. Rather than seeking definitive answers, Rilke embraces uncertainty, concluding with the question: "Am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?" The same openness animates Wingfield's photographs. Forms dissolve into other forms. A glacier becomes a drawing, a mountain becomes a wave, a landscape becomes an abstract composition. The photographs invite us to remain within this state of possibility.
Seen from above and stripped of familiar markers, the natural world reveals an unexpected visual language. Curves fold into one another, lines converge and scatter, colours surge across the frame. The brain's instinct to name, to explain and to make sense is quietly suspended. In its place, the imagination — released from certainty — begins to move freely. These images do not document a place. They record a movement.
"I've been circling for thousands of years, and I still don't know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?" Widening Circles does not answer that question. It simply keeps circling — and invites us to do the same.