Featured images: Badlands, Ruonan Yan, 2024, 35mm film, 8 x 10 in. / 20.32 x 25.4 cm.
Ruonan Yan’s 35mm film photography captures the quiet, timeless beauty of desert landscapes with a meditative focus on detail and texture.
Ruonan Yan is a photographer whose 35mm film works focus on desert landscapes, highlighting themes of time, decay, and resilience. Her use of light and texture draws attention to nature’s quiet beauty, emphasizing the details that often go unnoticed.
In her works, Yan explores the intersections between time, decay, and resilience, creating a visual narrative that emphasizes the raw and unfiltered beauty of nature. Her untitled series from 2022 showcases her ability to use analog techniques to tell stories that are rooted in the landscape’s history, inviting viewers to engage with the subtle shifts in light, form, and texture that define these desert environments.
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Untitled, Ruonan Yan, 2022, 35mm film, 8 x 10 in. / 20.32 x 25.4 cm.
In her first untitled piece, Ruonan Yan captures the stark beauty of a single cactus nestled among weathered rocks. The composition’s minimalism allows the red barrel cactus to stand out against the muted tones of the surrounding desert, drawing attention to both the resilience and fragility of life in such a harsh environment. Yan’s use of light creates a gentle contrast between the warm hues of the cactus and the cool, neutral tones of the rocks, embodying the quiet drama that exists in nature’s simplest moments.
Untitled II, Ruonan Yan, 2022, 35mm film, 8 x 10 in. / 20.32 x 25.4 cm.
Yan’s second untitled piece brings a focus on the textural interplay between the desert’s plant life and its sunbaked terrain. The spiny, golden glow of the cholla cactus contrasts with the dry, rugged earth below, evoking a sense of both danger and beauty. The soft, natural lighting enhances the texture of the cacti, casting subtle shadows that emphasize their intricate forms. Yan’s mastery of analog film allows the viewer to feel the warmth of the desert air, while also reflecting on the ecosystem’s delicate balance between growth and survival.
Untitled III, Ruonan Yan, 2022, 35mm film, 8 x 10 in. / 20.32 x 25.4 cm.
In Untitled III, Ruonan Yan captures a fallen palm tree, its trunk sprawled across a rocky landscape. The image highlights the inevitable cycle of life, death, and decay in the desert environment. The fallen palm, once tall and resilient, now becomes a part of the landscape itself, merging with the rocks and earth. Yan’s attention to light and shadow in this composition creates a sense of stillness, yet there is an underlying tension as the viewer contemplates the passage of time and the fragility of all living things. This photograph serves as a reminder of nature’s constant transformations and the quiet power of the desert.
Ruonan Yan’s 35mm film photographs offer a quiet but powerful meditation on the desert’s ability to simultaneously support life and witness its eventual decay. Through her subtle use of light, texture, and composition, Yan allows viewers to appreciate the nuanced beauty of the desert landscape, inviting reflection on time, impermanence, and resilience. Her work stands as a testament to the power of minimalism and the enduring beauty of nature’s most rugged environments.
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Ithaca, Ruonan Yan, 2023, 35mm film, 10 x 8 in. / 25.4 x 20.32 cm.
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