Antoine Bruy: Scrublands

Antoine Bruy: Scrublands

While city dwellers often dream of a life unplugged from the density, noise, and pressures of modern living, few are able or willing to cut ties with the convenience it affords. In his series, Scrublands, French artist Antoine Bruy draws focus on the lives of people who have chosen to leave behind the commotion of urban living in search of a more simple and self-sufficient life.

Between 2010 and 2015, Bruy travelled throughout Europe and the United States in search of those who have embraced an off-grid lifestyle, far from the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot or grocery store. Using the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) network to locate individuals and communities practicing subsistence farming and using renewable energy sources, Bruy visited people living in remote areas ranging from the Carpathian Mountains in Romania to the Rockies in Colorado. Often staying with his subjects for weeks or months at a time, he takes part in their way of life—helping with the work and responsibilities necessary to live off-grid. Using a medium format film camera, Bruy documents his encounters, offering a glimpse into a world of ingenuity, isolation, and wilderness. Brought together, the images in Scrublands meditate on the experiences of those who have chosen to trade a life of industrialized comfort for one of solitude and autonomy.

Antoine Bruy is an artist and photographer currently based in Lille, France. He earned a degree from the Vevey School of Photography in Switzerland in 2011 and has since exhibited widely, with recent exhibitions in Australia, China, Cambodia, Denmark, France, Guatemala, India, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Guardian, Juxtapoz, The British Journal of Photography, and Le Monde. Bruy’s continued dedication to the medium has been met with numerous awards; he has been the recipient of the Getty Images Emerging Talent Award, the Daylight Photo Award, and the LensCulture Exposure Award. In 2014, he was included in the Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50, and in 2015, Bruy was named one of PDN’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch.

©2018 by San Francisco Airport Commission. All rights reserved.