The Electric Prairie came about accidentally and without pre-meditation. As such, it speaks of no grand narrative and seeks to investigate nothing — it is merely a collection of images of the land that I have inhabited all my life, shot during the time of day that I feel most alive and creatively energized. If this series contains within it a theme, it is simply the aesthetics of the natural as illuminated by the artificial. The encroachment of our presence and our refusal to let the dark remain dark.
Power lines, utility poles, the light trails of passing vehicles, the humming glow of distant factories and power stations — these things characterize the modern prairie landscape and its midnight aesthetic. If I can transmit something of the quiet essence of this topography and the contemplation it invites to the viewer, I should feel the series a success.
It should also be noted that although all of these images were taken during the winter, the fact of it being winter bears no significance on the images or to the series. It just so happened that when I thought it all up and started collecting images that winter was the season. Although, as I write this, the feeling of endless winter is very much with me, and perhaps this is indeed integral to the images before you.
Selected images from Nigel’s Electric Prairie series are shown below
ABOUT NIGEL AGAR
Nigel Agar hails from the middle of the Canadian prairies where everything is flat and the winters are cold, long, and dark. Taking up photography in 2016, he quickly gravitated to explorations of the mundane, particularly the mundane as illuminated by the surreal glow of the artificial lights ubiquitous within the nocturnal urban landscape.
Website: nigelagar.com
Instagram: @nigel_agar
Flickr: nigelagar
CREDITS
Unless otherwise stated, all words and images in this article are © Nigel Agar
