Ephemeral Art Captured Through Photography

Due to the ephemeral aspects of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Julian Beaver, Andy Goldsworthy’s artworks, photography plays a crucial role in capturing the beauty in the compositions they have created. As said by the Goldsworthy himself, "Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit." (Goldsworthy) The whole idea of all the artist’s artwork is to imprison an image, in the form of a photograph, of an artwork that will eventually decompose and cyclically become a part of the earth.
The importance of viewing these artists' ephemeral artwork increases because their work will not be around forever. As Christo says, “The fact that the work does not remain creates an urgency to see it. For instance, if someone were to tell you, ‘Oh, look on the right, there is a rainbow.’ You will never answer, ‘I will look at it tomorrow.’”
In the end, each of these artists’ work will deconstruct, whether the materials are recycled or the rain washes them away or they decompose, all the compositions will be returned the earth. Through photography, these fleeting pieces can be documented and shared will generations to come.