Geologic provinces of the world (USGS)

Shield   Platform   Orogen   Basin   Large igneous province   Extended crust

Oceanic crust:   0–20 Ma   20–65 Ma   >65 Ma

Orogeny refers to forces and events leading to a severe structural deformation of the Earth's lithosphere (crust and uppermost mantle) due to the engagement of tectonic plates. Response to such engagement results in the formation of long tracts of highly deformed rock called orogens or orogenic belts. The word "orogeny" comes from the Greek (oros for "mountain" plus genesis for "creation" or "origin"), and it is the primary mechanism by which mountains are built on continents. Orogens develop while a continental plate is crumpled and thickened to form mountain ranges, and involve a great range of geological processes collectively called orogenesis.^[1][2]

Physiography[link]

Two processes that can contribute to an orogen. Top: delamination by intrusion of hot asthenosphere; Bottom: Subduction of ocean crust. The two processes lead to differently located granites (bubbles in diagram), providing evidence as to which process actually occurred.^[3]

Subduction of an oceanic plate by a continental plate to form a noncollisional orogen. (example: the Andes)

Continental collision of two continental plates to form a collisional orogen. However, usually no continental crust is subducted, only uplifted. (example: the Alps)

Formation of an orogen is accomplished in part by the tectonic processes of subduction, where a continent rides forcefully over an oceanic plate (noncollisional orogens), or convergence of two or more continents (collisional orogens).^[4]

Orogeny usually produces long arcuate (from arcuare, to bend like a bow) structures, known as orogenic belts. Generally, orogenic belts consist of long parallel strips of rock exhibiting similar characteristics along the length of the belt. Orogenic belts are associated with subduction zones, which consume crust, produce volcanoes, and build island arcs. The arcuate structure is attributed to the rigidity of the descending plate, and island arc cusps are related to tears in the descending lithosphere.^[5] These island arcs may be added to a continent during an orogenic event.

The processes of orogeny can take tens of millions of years and build mountains from plains or the ocean floor. The topographic height of orogenic mountains is related to the principle of isostasy,^[6] that is, a balance of the downward gravitational force upon an upthrust mountain range (composed of light, continental crust material) and the buoyant upward forces exerted by the dense underlying mantle.^[7]

Frequently, rock formations that undergo orogeny are severely deformed and undergo metamorphism. During orogeny, deeply buried rocks may be pushed to the surface. Sea bottom and near shore material may cover some or all of the orogenic area. If the orogeny is due to two continents colliding, the resulting mountains can be very high (see Himalaya).

An orogenic event may be studied as (a) a tectonic structural event, (b) as a geographical event, and (c) a chronological event. Orogenic events (a) cause distinctive structural phenomena related to tectonic activity, (b) affect rocks and crust in particular regions, and (c) happen within a specific period of time.

Orogenic cycle[link]

Although orogeny involves plate tectonics, the tectonic forces result in a variety of associated phenomena, including magmatization, metamorphism, crustal melting, and crustal thickening. Just what happens in a specific orogen depends upon the strength and rheology of the continental lithosphere, and how these properties change during orogenesis.

In addition to orogeny, the orogen once formed is subject to other processes, such as sedimentation and erosion.^[2] The sequence of repeated cycles of sedimentation, deposition and erosion, followed by burial and metamorphism, and then by formation of granitic batholiths and tectonic uplift to form mountain chains, is called the orogenic cycle.^[8][9] For example, the Caledonian Orogeny refers to the Silurian and Devonian events that resulted from the collision of Laurentia with Eastern Avalonia and other former fragments of Gondwana. The Caledonian Orogen resulted from these events and various others that are part of its peculiar orogenic cycle.^[10]

In summary, an orogeny is a long-lived deformational episode in which many geological phenomena play a role. The orogeny of an orogen is only part of the orogen's orogenic cycle. Among the other phases is erosion, described next.

Erosion[link]

Erosion inevitably removes much of the mountains, exposing the core or mountain roots (metamorphic rocks brought to the surface from a depth of several kilometres). Such exhumation may be helped by isostatic movements balancing out the buoyancy of the evolving orogen. There is debate about the extent to which erosion modifies the patterns of tectonic deformation (see erosion and tectonics). Thus, the final form of the majority of old orogenic belts is a long arcuate strip of crystalline metamorphic rocks sequentially below younger sediments which are thrust atop them and dip away from the orogenic core.

An orogen may be almost completely eroded away, and only recognizable by studying (old) rocks that bear traces of orogenesis. Orogens are usually long, thin, arcuate tracts of rock that have a pronounced linear structure resulting in terranes or blocks of deformed rocks, separated generally by suture zones or dipping thrust faults. These thrust faults carry relatively thin slices of rock (which are called nappes or thrust sheets, and differ from tectonic plates) from the core of the shortening orogen out toward the margins, and are intimately associated with folds and the development of metamorphism.^[11]

Biology[link]

The study of orogeny, coupled with biogeography (the study of the distribution and evolution of flora and fauna),^[12] geography and mid ocean ridges in the 1950s and 1960s, contributed greatly to the theory of plate tectonics. Even at a very early stage, life played a significant role in the continued existence of oceans, by affecting the composition of the atmosphere. The existence of oceans is critical to sea-floor spreading and subduction.^[13][14]

Relationship to mountain building[link]

An example of thin-skinned deformation (thrust faulting) of the Sevier Orogeny in Montana. Note the white Madison Limestone repeated, with one example in the foreground (that pinches out with distance) and another to the upper right corner and top of the picture.

Sierra Nevada Mountains (a result of delamination) as seen from the International Space Station.

Mountain formation occurs through a number of mechanisms.^[15][16][17]

Mountain complexes result from irregular successions of tectonic responses due to sea-floor spreading, shifting lithosphere plates, transform faults, and colliding, coupled and uncoupled continental margins.

—^[18]

Large modern orogenies often lie on the margins of continents; the Alleghenian (Appalachian), Laramide, and Andean orogenies are examples of these in the Americas. Older inactive orogenies, such as the Algoman, Penokean and Antler, are represented by deformed rocks and sedimentary basins further inland.

Areas that are rifting apart, such as mid-ocean ridges and the East African Rift, have mountains due to thermal buoyancy related to the hot mantle underneath them; this thermal buoyancy is known as dynamic topography. In strike-slip systems, such as the San Andreas Fault, restraining bends result in regions of localized crustal shortening and mountain building without a plate-margin-wide orogeny. Hotspot volcanism results in the formation of isolated mountains and mountain chains that are not necessarily on tectonic plate boundaries.

Regions can also experience uplift as a result of delamination of the lithosphere, in which an unstable portion of cold lithospheric root drips down into the mantle, decreasing the density of the lithosphere and causing buoyant uplift.^[19] An example is the Sierra Nevada in California. This range of fault-block mountains^[20] experienced renewed uplift after a delamination of the lithosphere beneath them.^[19][21]

Finally, uplift and erosion related to epeirogenesis (large-scale vertical motions of portions of continents without much associated folding, metamorphism, or deformation)^[22] can create local topographic highs.

History of the concept[link]

Before the development of geologic concepts during the 19th century, the presence of mountains was explained in Christian contexts^{[citation needed]} as a result of the Biblical Deluge. This was an extension of Neoplatonic thought, which influenced early Christian writers^{[citation needed]}.

Orogeny was used by Amanz Gressly (1840) and Jules Thurmann (1854) as orogenic in terms of the creation of mountain elevations, as the term mountain building was still used to describe the processes.

Elie de Beaumont (1852) used the evocative "Jaws of a Vise" theory to explain orogeny, but was more concerned with the height rather than the implicit structures created by and contained in orogenic belts. His theory essentially held that mountains were created by the squeezing of certain rocks.

Eduard Suess (1875) recognised the importance of horizontal movement of rocks. The concept of a precursor geosyncline or initial downward warping of the solid earth (Hall, 1859) prompted James Dwight Dana (1873) to include the concept of compression in the theories surrounding mountain-building. With hindsight, we can discount Dana's conjecture that this contraction was due to the cooling of the Earth (aka the cooling Earth theory).

The cooling Earth theory was the chief paradigm for most geologists until the 1960s. It was, in the context of orogeny, fiercely contested by proponents of vertical movements in the crust (similar to tephrotectonics), or convection within the asthenosphere or mantle.

Gustav Steinmann (1906) recognised different classes of orogenic belts, including the Alpine type orogenic belt, typified by a flysch and molasse geometry to the sediments; ophiolite sequences, tholeiitic basalts, and a nappe style fold structure.

In terms of recognising orogeny as an event, Leopold von Buch (1855) recognised that orogenies could be placed in time by bracketing between the youngest deformed rock and the oldest undeformed rock, a principle which is still in use today, though commonly investigated by geochronology using radiometric dating.

H.J. Zwart (1967)^[23] drew attention to the metamorphic differences in orogenic belts, proposing three types, modified by W. S. Pitcher in 1979^[24] and further modified as:^{[citation needed]}

• Hercynotype (back-arc basin type);
  • Shallow, low-pressure metamorphism; thin metamorphic zones
  • Metamorphism dependent on increase in temperature
  • Abundant granite and migmatite
  • Few ophiolites, ultramafic rocks virtually absent
  • very wide orogen with small and slow uplift
  • nappe structures rare
• Alpinotype (ocean trench style);
  • deep, high pressure, thick metamorphic zones
  • metamorphism of many facies, dependent on decrease in pressure
  • few granites or migmatites
  • abundant ophiolites with ultramafic rocks
  • Relatively narrow orogen with large and rapid uplift
  • Nappe structures predominant
• Cordilleran (arc) type;
  • dominated by calc-alkaline igneous rocks, andesites, granite batholiths
  • general lack of migmatites, low geothermal gradient
  • lack of ophiolite and abyssal sedimentary rocks (black shale, chert, etcetera)
  • low-pressure metamorphism, moderate uplift
  • lack of nappes

The advent of plate tectonics has explained the vast majority of orogenic belts and their features. The cooling earth theory (principally advanced by Descartes) is dispensed with, and tephrotectonic style vertical movements have been explained primarily by the process of isostasy.

Some oddities exist, where simple collisional tectonics are modified in a transform plate boundary, such as in New Zealand, or where island arc orogenies, for instance in New Guinea occur away from a continental backstop. Further complications such as Proterozoic continent-continent collisional orogens, explicitly the Musgrave Block in Australia, previously inexplicable (see Dennis, 1982) are being brought to light with the advent of seismic imaging techniques which can resolve the deep crust structure of orogenic belts.

See also[link]

• Biogeography
• Continental collision
• Fault mechanics
• Internide
• Guyot
• List of orogenies
• Mantle convection
• Mountain building
• Tectonic uplift
• Epeirogenic movement

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Élie de Beaumont, J.-B., 1852. Notice sur les Systèmes de Montagnes ("Note on Mountain Systems"), Bertrand, Paris, 1543 pp. (English synopsis in Dennis (1982))
• Buch, L. Von, 1902. Gesammelte Schriften, Roth & Eck, Berlin.
• Dana, James D. (1873). "On some results of the Earth's contraction from cooling, including a discussion of the origins of mountains, and the nature of the Earth's interior". American Journal of Science, 5: 423–443. 
• Dennis, John G., 1982. Orogeny, Benchmark Papers in Geology, Volume 62, Hutchinson Ross Publishing Company, New York ISBN 0-87933-394-4
• Hall, J., 1859. Palaeontology of New York, in New York National Survey No. 3, Part 1, 533 p.
• Suess, Eduard, 1875. Die Entstehung Der Alpen lit. The Origin Of The Alps, Braumüller, Vienna, 168 p.
• Harms, Brady, Cheney, 2006. Exploring the Proterozoic Big Sky Orogeny in Southwest Montana, 19th annual Keck symposium.
• Kevin Jones (2003). Mountain Building in Scotland: Science : A Level 3 Course Series. Open University Worldwide Ltd. ISBN 0-7492-5847-0.  provides a detailed history of a number of orogens, including the Caledonian Oregeny, which lasted from the late Cambrian to the Devonian, with the main collisional events occurring during Ordovician and Silurian times.
• Tom McCann, ed. (2008). The Geology of Central Europe: Volume 1 Precambrian and palaeozoic. Geological Society of London. ISBN 1-86239-245-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=BR9FWgu2ps4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=orogeny&f=false.  is one of a two-volume exposition of the geology of central Europe with a discussion of major orogens.
• Suzanne Mahlburg Kay, Víctor A. Ramos, William R. Dickinson, ed. (2009). Backbone of the Americas: shallow subduction, plateau uplift, and ridge and terrane collision; Memoir 204. Geological Society of America. ISBN 0-8137-1204-1. http://books.google.com/?id=ThpUlnCKwdgC.  Evolution of the Cordilleras of the Americas from a multidisciplinary perspective from a symposium held in Mendoza, Argentina (2006).

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Orogeny

• Maps of the Acadian and Taconic orogenies
• Antarctic Geology

Joan Fontcuberta (born February 24, 1955 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain)^[1] is a conceptual artist whose best-known works, such as Fauna and Sputnik, examine the truthfulness of photography. In addition, he is a writer, editor, teacher, and curator.

Biography[link]

Fontcuberta received a degree in communications from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1977.^[2][3] He worked in advertising in his early career, and his family had also worked in advertising.^[4][5] From 1979 to 1986 he was a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona, after which he earned a living through his art.^[6][7]

In 1980 he co-founded the Spanish/English visual arts journal PhotoVision, and he is still Editor in Chief.^[5][6] Since 1993 Fontcuberta has been a professor of audiovisual communication at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.^[3][6] Among other teaching appointments, he was visiting lecturer in Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University in 2003.^[6][8] Among other awards, he was named an Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture in 1994.^[2][6] His curatorial experience includes serving as the Artistic Director of the 1996 Rencontres d'Arles, an international photography festival.^[2] He exhibited at Les Rencontres d'Arles, France, in 2005 and 2009.

Approach to art[link]

Fontcuberta describes himself as "self-taught in photography" and considers himself "a conceptual artist using photography."^[7] He states that the propaganda and dictatorship of Spain under Franco in his first 20 years led him to be skeptical about authority, which is reflected in his art.^[4] His background in communications and advertising led him to contemplate the relationship between photography and truth, and Fontcuberta believes that humor is an important component of his work.^[4] His art has been described as "postmodern."^[9]

Works in museums[link]

Fontcuberta's works are held in the permanent collections of many museums,^[1][6] such as Art Institute of Chicago; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; George Eastman House, Rochester; Los Angeles County Museum of Art;^[10] Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Musée National d’Art Moderne / Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires; Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Selected exhibitions[link]

Solo exhibitions of single series of Fontcuberta's works include the following (with earliest known year of exhibition in parentheses^[1][2]):

[edit] Herbarium (1984)

In this series, Fontcuberta "arranged inanimate objects such as electrical cord, plastic, a shaving brush or a rubber hose into what appear to be exotic plants",^[11] thereby creating "pseudoplants".^[12] The black and white still-life photographs of these constructions were "drily classified in Latin"^[13] and thereby resembled the photographs of Karl Blossfeldt.^[5][14] The photographs were exhibited in Belgium, the United States, Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain, Canada, and France.^[1][2]

[edit] Fauna (1987)

Also known as "Dr. Ameisenhaufen's Fauna" or "Secret Fauna", Fontcuberta created this series in collaboration with the writer and photographer Pere Formiguera.^[7] The premise was that Fontcuberta and Formiguera discovered the long-lost archives of German zoologist Dr. Peter Ameisenhaufen, who was born in 1895 and who disappeared mysteriously in 1955.^[15] Ameisenhaufen had catalogued a number of unusual animals; for example, Ceropithecus icarocornu resembles a monkey with a unicorn-like horn on its head and wings; and Solenoglypha polipodida resembles a snake with 12 feet.^[16]

A review of the exhibition as presented in 1988 at the Museum of Modern Art noted that the evidence presented for the existence of the animals included "photographs... both in their natural habitats and in laboratory situations; detailed field notes, both in the original German and English translations; an occasional skeletal X-ray or dissection drawing; two or three tapes of the animals' cries, and in one case, an actual stuffed specimen.”^[17] Furthermore, a video displayed interviews in which various people discussed Ameisenhaufen's life.^[17]

The exhibition was shown in England, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Canada and the United States.^[1][2] The fake animals displayed at the exhibitions varied according to the "legends, traditions, and superstitions" of the place hosting the exhibition.^[7] Among other clues suggesting that the exhibition was a hoax, "Formiguera" and "Ameisenhaufen" both mean "anthill," and the name of "Hans von Kubert" (Ameisenhaufen's research assistant) sounds like "Joan Fontcuberta."^[7][18]

Fontcuberta reported that responses to the exhibition ranged "from people who understand that it is a farce and appreciate the satire and the humor of it, to people who understand it's a farce and are angry at you for trying to fool them, to people who believe it and are angry, to people who believe it and are delighted."^[7] He said in another interview that during the 1989 exhibition in the Barcelona Museum of Natural Science,^[19] "30% of the visitors aged 20 to 30, with university training, believed that some of our animals could have existed."^[20]

[edit] Constellations (1993)

In this series, "the images of the cosmos are strewn with a fine stardust",^[21] but "what they actually record is dust, crushed insects and other debris that accumulated on the windshield of Mr. Fontcuberta's car."^[22] The photographs were created "by applying sheets of 8-by-10-inch film directly to the glass and shining a light through, creating photograms, which were then made into Cibachrome prints."^[22]

[edit] Artist and the Photograph (1995)

In this series, Fontcuberta "imagine[d] and realize[d] photographic works by the four greatest Spanish artists of the twentieth century, namely Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí and Antoni Tàpies."^[9] He mixed fact (e.g., that Picasso and André Villers collaborated on a series of lithographs called "Diurnes") with fiction (e.g., that a researcher recently found discarded images from the series).^[23] The purpose of this series was to explore how curators and museums influence the public's perception of art.^[12][24]

[edit] Sputnik (1997)

For this project, Fontcuberta fabricated evidence that the Soyuz 2 spacecraft was crewed by cosmonaut Ivan Istochnikov.^[25] Soyuz 1, an actual Soviet space mission in 1967, had ended with the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov when the spacecraft crashed on landing. In 1968, according to the fabricated story, "Istochnikov and his canine companion Kloka mysteriously vanished after leaving the Soyuz 2 capsule for a routine space walk. When the Soyuz 3 arrived for a docking maneuver, it found only a vodka bottle containing a note, floating in orbit outside the empty, meteorite-damaged ship."^[25] The real Soyuz 3 spacecraft did rendezvous with Soyuz 2, but Soyuz 2 was an uncrewed mission launched as a rendezvous target for Soyuz 3. According to Fontcuberta, Soviet officials deleted Istochnikov from official Soviet history to avoid embarrassment; however, the "Sputnik Foundation" discovered Istochnikov's "voice transcriptions, videos, original annotations, some of his personal effects, and photographs taken throughout his lifetime."^[25] The exhibition of artifacts (e.g., photographs) related to "Soyuz 2" was shown in many countries, including Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Japan, and the United States.^{[1][25][26][27]} Among other reactions to the exhibition, a Russian ambassador "got extremely angry because [Fontcuberta] was insulting the glorious Russian past and threatened to present a diplomatic complaint."^[4]

Several lines of evidence available since the first exhibition of "Sputnik" in 1997 in Madrid suggested that the story and artifacts form an elaborate hoax:

• The name "Ivan Istochnikov" is a Russian translation of Joan Fontcuberta's name;^[5][28] in specific, "Joan" and "Ivan" both translate to "John"^[29][30] and "Fontcuberta and Istochnikov both mean 'hidden fountain'".^[25]
• The photographs of Istochnikov show Fontcuberta's face.^[25][28]
• Pages of the official Web site of the Madrid exhibition contain the words "PURE FICTION" toward the top of each page in light red text on a dark red background^[31] or light pink text on a white background.^[32]
• The front and rear endpapers of the catalog accompanying the Madrid exhibition have the words "it's all fiction" in Russian and Spanish printed on them using glow-in-the-dark ink.^[33]
• At the Web site of Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the third of three pages concerning the Madrid exhibition states that "the report which we published on the previous pages is a product of his [Fontcuberta's] imagination."^[26]

Nevertheless, "many unsuspecting folks have been taken in by the story",^[25] including the Spanish journalist Iker Jiménez. On the 11 June 2006 television show Cuarto Milenio (Fourth Millennium), Jiménez said (in Spanish) about Istochnikov "the question is why [he was deleted from history], what he had done, why he annoyed [the Soviet government]."^[28][34] In response, "one of Jiménez's collaborators, Gerardo Pelaez, said the Soviet authorities made Istochnikov disappear because he was the personification of 'a noisy failure'."^[28] Fontcuberta was quoted as saying about Jiménez's mistake "It's all very funny!"^[28] The next week, Jiménez issued a correction, saying that the story was a "cosmic urban legend."^[28][35]

At least one Web page states "The Mexican magazine Luna Cornea, Number 14, January/April 1998, p. 58, already displayed the photos and tragic story of the [Soyuz 2] mission as the unalloyed truth."^[36] However:

• The director of the magazine was Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, who edited a 1985 book for which Fontcuberta wrote the introduction.^[37]
• Under Ortiz Monasterio's direction, the magazine had earlier published an article about Fontcuberta's Fauna project that stated that the animals were "imaginary."^[38]
• The excerpt from Sputnik in question is accompanied by a paragraph that begins "The Catalan photographer and researcher Joan Fontcuberta, in whose work the truths -- or lies -- of images have been placed at the service of natural history, has sent Luna Córnea his most recent finding, 'Sputnik.'"^[39]

Japanese singer Akino Arai wrote a song Sputnik (published in the Album Furu Platinum) about Istochnikov and his dog Kloka.^[40] The song begins with the fragment from the Russian poem written by Evtushenko, which was also used in the Sputnik exhibition Catalogue. The poem in this song is a back translation and doesn't fit to the Russian original in the book. Also, the upcoming sci-fi feature film The Cosmonaut is heavily inspired by Fontcuberta's hoax.

[edit] Hemograms (1998)

Fontcuberta wrote about this series: "The idea was to invite friends and people close to me to provide a sample of their blood... [on] a piece of transparent film.... Immediately afterward, I make an enlargement on photographic paper using the blood as a negative...."^[41] The photographs have been described as "exploring identity through blood and its self-expression as abstract art."^[4] A review of some photographs from the series stated that they caused the writer to "imagine anonymous blood donors, laboratory procedures, and the possibility of AIDS, or cancer."^[42]

[edit] Sirens (2000)

This series consisted of the installation of fake fossils of mermaids in the Réserve Géologique de Haute-Provence in Digne-les-Bains in southern France, which were then photographed.^{[5][43][44][45]} Fontcuberta created a story about how the "Hydropithecus" (water-monkey) fossils were discovered by a "Father Jean Fontana" whose face resembles Fontcuberta's.^[46] Subsequently the fossils have "become a permanent feature of the park."^[5][47]

[edit] Pin Zhuang (2001)

The name of this work "is Chinese for 'dismantled', 'dismounted' or 'puzzle."^[48] It was inspired by the 2001 Hainan Island incident "in which an American spy plane that crashed in China was thoroughly picked over and returned to the United States in pieces."^[49] The exhibition, which "depict[ed] model planes carefully mis-constructed by the artist and photographed on 'flights' through outer space,^[49] was described as "haunting, poetic and thought-provoking."^[50]

[edit] Karelia: Miracles & Co. (2002)

The intent of this series was to "de-dramatize the irrational force behind religious feelings, while exposing the accompanying economic commercialization and political manipulation."^[51] The premise was that Fontcuberta visited a monastery in the Karelia region between Finland and Russia "to unveil the hoax" that it trains students to perform miracles.^[52] For example, in the photograph "The Miracle of the Flesh," Fontcuberta is shown holding a slice of ham with an image of Che Guevara on it, and the caption states that Adolf Hitler or Osama Bin Laden can be seen on other ham slices depending on the food eaten by the pig.^[52] A 2003 exhibition in New York was called "an uncommonly clever tour de force."^[53]

[edit] Orogenesis (2002)

In this project, also known as "Landscapes without Memory," Fontcuberta "create[d] plausible, even spectacular landscapes using Terragen, a computer program originally created for military and scientific uses that turns maps into images of three-dimensional terrain."^[3] However, instead of starting with scans of maps, Fontcuberta used "scans of historical artworks such as a Henri Rousseau painting or Gustave Le Gray photograph, as well as parts of the human body"^[54] to produce "splendid and astonishing landscapes... (lakes, mountains, rocky deserts)".^[21] One review noted that the series suggests a "crisis in contemporary landscape art... [for example] man's emotional and psychological relationship with a rapidly vanishing natural environment."^[55] The works suggest that even "scientific" images are influenced by human culture.^[56][57] Along with Googlegrams, the Orogenesis series was said to "call into question the boundaries of representation in the information age."^[58]

[edit] Googlegrams (2005)

Fontcuberta wrote about this series "The basic idea consists in selecting images that have become icons of our time. ... [The images are] refashioned using a freeware photo mosaic programme. ... the programme was connected to the Internet and used the search engine Google to locate thousands of images on the basis of search criteria determined by the user, normally images associated with one or several words. In the Abu Ghraib photograph, for example, the search engine was given the names of top officials, civilian contractors and enlisted soldiers cited in the ‘Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review DoD Detention Operations’...."^[59] His intent was to "make an ironic criticism" of beliefs that people on the Internet "shar[e] an exhaustive, universal, and democratic conscience."^[54] Reviews of works in the series were mixed.^[60][61] In 2007, the Simon Wiesenthal Center objected to a Googlegram showing the wall in the Palestinian West Bank that was a mosaic of photographs of Nazi concentration camps, stating that it was "a smug exercise in banalizing the horrors of the Holocaust."^[62][63][64] The exhibition traveled widely, including shows in Paris, Naples, and Beijing.^[65][66]

[edit] Deconstructing Osama (2007)

Exhibited at the Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation in Mallorca in 2007,^[67][68] this project concerned the purported "leader of Al Qaeda's military wing Dr. Fasqiyta Ul-Junat" who "was in reality an actor and singer named Manbaa Mokfhi who had appeared in soap operas on Arab television networks and was the public face of a MeccaCola advertising campaign."^[69] He was not actually a terrorist but instead had been "hired to play the role."^[69] After Mokfhi disappeared mysteriously, "intelligence services then invented the figure of Osama bin Laden and his associates in which to create the face of terror."^[69]

Fontcuberta himself appears as Ul-Junat / Mokfhi.^[67][68][69] Furthermore, the name "Fontcuberta, Joan" is similar to the name "Fasqiyta Ul-Junat."^[70] The "in-jokes" in the project include the similarity of the names of the photographers Ben Kalish Ezab and Ben Salaad to characters in The Adventures of Tintin, a picture of photographer Martin Parr in a keffiyeh, and the allusion of the “Office of Strategic Impact” in the project to the real Office of Special Plans of the Pentagon.^[70][71]

Selected books by and about Fontcuberta[link]

Books with Fontcuberta's work include the following:

• Fontcuberta, Joan, curator. Idas & chaos: trends in Spanish photography 1920-1945. New York: U.S.-Spanish Joint Committee for Cultural and Educational Cooperation, 1985. ISBN 84-7483-045-X.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Herbarium. Göttingen, West Germany: European Photography, 1985. ISBN 3-923283-09-1 (hardcover) or ISBN 3-923283-07-5 (paperback) or ISBN 3-923283-08-3 (deluxe).
• Fontcuberta, Joan, and Pere Formiguera. Dr. Ameisenhaufen's fauna. Göttingen, West Germany: European Photography, 1988. ISBN 3-923283-16-4. With a tan paper cover, this first edition "mimics the look and feel of a scientific study so well that it occasionally appears in libraries and bookstores as a zoology text."^[18] It was chosen as "one of the most important photographic publications in modern times."^[72] Other editions of the book include:
  • Fauna Secreta. Barcelona: Fundació Caixa de Catalunya, 1989.
  • Fauna. [Sevilla]: Junta de Andalucía, 1989. (Publisher also given as "[Spain]: PhotoVision" or "Seville: The Museum [Museo de Arte Contemporaneo].") ISBN 84-86620-04-X.
  • Himitsu No Dobutsushi. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 1991. ISBN 4-480-87154-3.
  • Fauna. [Utrera, Sevilla]: PhotoVision, 1999. ISBN 84-86620-15-5 (Spanish) or ISBN 84-86620-17-1 (French) or ISBN 84-86620-16-3 (English).
• Història artificial: el cor i les tenebres: Joan Fontcuberta: IVAM Centre Julio González, 26 novembre 1992/24 de gener 1993. [Valencia]: Le Centre, 1992. ISBN 84-482-0023-3.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Le baiser de Judas: photographie et vérité. Arles: Actes Sud, 1996. ISBN 2-7427-0839-1.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. El beso de Judas: fotografía y verdad. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 1997. ISBN 84-252-1480-7.
• Kondakova, Olga, et al. Sputnik. Madrid: Fundación Arte y Tecnología, 1997. ISBN 84-89884-00-5. The book was said to "recall[] the heyday of the great photobooks of El Lissitsky and Alexander Rodchenko."^[9]
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Joan Fontcuberta: twilight zones. Barcelona: Actar, 1999. ISBN 84-95273-15-2.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Joan Fontcuberta: volte face: a l'envers de la science, les leçons de l'histoire. Marseille: Images en manoeuvres: Centre d'Art, 2000. ISBN 2-908445-44-1.
• Zabalbeascoa, Anatxu, and Joan Fontcuberta. The artist and the photograph. Barcelona: Actar, 2000. ISBN 84-95273-30-6.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Contranatura. Alicante, Spain: Museo de la Universidad de Alicante, 2001. ISBN 84-95273-83-7.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Securitas. Madrid: Fundación Telefónica, 2001, ISBN 84-89884-26-9. Also Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili, 2001, ISBN 84-252-1896-9.
• Caujolle, Christian. Joan Fontcuberta. London and New York: Phaidon, 2001. ISBN 0-7148-4031-9.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Photography: crisis of history. Barcelona: Actar, 2002. ISBN 84-95273-50-0.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Joan Fontcuberta: landscapes without memory. New York: Aperture, 2005. ISBN 1-931788-79-0.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Datascapes: Orogenesis/Googlegrams. Sevilla: PhotoVision, 2007. ISBN 978-84-931546-4-4.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Deconstructing Osama: the truth about the case of Manbaa Mokfhi. Barcelona: Actar, 2007. ISBN 978-84-96540-90-3.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Historias de la fotografía española. Escritos 1977-2004. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2008. ISBN 978-84-252-2287-0.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Googlegramas. Munich: Galerie von Braunbehrens, 2008. ISBN 978392268499.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. El Libro de las Maravillas. Barcelona: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona y Actar, 2008. ISBN 978-84-9850-126-1, ISBN 978-84-96954-81-6.
• Fontcuberta, Joan. Albarracín. Santa Iocencia. Holly Innocence. Albarracín: Estancias Creativas, 2009. ISBN 978-84-613-4827-5.
• Ródenas, Gabri, "Fontcubertin Blow up Blow up: Ekshumacija Antonionija/ Fontcuberta´s Blow up Blow up: Exhuming Antonioni” in Fotografija, Eslovenia, December 2009. ISSN: 1408-3566.

Documentaries[link]

F For Fontcuberta, directed by Gerardo Panichi and Daniele Villa - Citrullo International, produced by Citrullo International, TV de Catalunya, Banff Centre, Jerome Bellavista Productions, 2005

References[link]

External links[link]

• Zabalbeascoa, Anatxu. Joan Fontcuberta - ArtForum, February 1993.
• Galeria Virtual and Joan Fontcuberta. Topophonia: Terrestrial Music - Barcelona: Pompeu Fabra University, February 1994.
• Fundación Telefónica. Exposición Securitas - c. 2001.