"In the cabbage I sense the entire secret of life," said American modernist photographer Edward Weston in 1931.

The cabbage and its texture was an important motif in several of Weston’s photographs in the 1930s, along with his photos of peppers, courgettes and artichokes. In this context, Field, which was photographed between 2020 and 2022 by Verena Winkelmann, can also be seen in relation to this tradition.

She took photos of the field during both the night and day over a period of several years and during several seasons. In the beginning, her work was very much concerned with observing nuances and changes. She gradually became more familiar with different cultivation methods and organic farming, and the photos displayed here are from such farms. She noticed that on organic farms every vegetable was closely watched and carefully processed.

Her project resulted in a series of close-up night shots using a flash of vegetables which were isolated from their surroundings. The vegetables are shown in their own environment, not wrapped in plastic with floodlights which is the way we usually see them in the supermarket. This seems to provide us with access to a more hidden existence of these plants: the photos show us the sensual surface of the vegetables that could be associated with the skin, blood vessels and burgeoning life.

This text has been taken from an essay written for the exhibition catalogue by Christine Hansen, the co-curator of the exhibition at Preus Museum.

The book is designed by Marie Lautsch.