Yogan Müller

The Arcadian Archive (Telotypes I)
Los Angeles, October 2019 - Present

Telotypes (from the Greek stems τέλος “end,” also “boundary, border, extremity” and τύπος “mark, figure, outline”) is a work in progress that stems from a keen scholarly interest in the history and imagery of the American West. It also stems from a realistic appreciation of the unique ecology of Los Angeles.

L.A. is first and foremost a tremendous material reality that sits on the "edges of the experiment", as photographer Marie-José Jongerius remarked. It should be noted that Los Angeles heavily relies on automobiles, distant fresh water sources and fossil electricity¹. 

With the Covid-19 pandemic, the nights of unrest that followed peaceful protests of June 2020 for more racial justice as well as the notable absence of traffic, the ruthless nature of the built environment reasserted itself. L.A. suddenly became a disquieting hall of mirrors.

Building on the pictures I made the fall of 2019, I continued to photograph something akin to the genius loci of contemporary Los Angeles by photographing the imprint the city leaves on the landscape and people’s psyches.

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(1) According to the Center of Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) in Los Angeles, as of 2013 about two thirds of the electricity the LADWP distributes are generated by coal-fired (40%) and gas-fired (22%) power plants. See: http://www.clui.org/content/sources-power-0

Read an interview led by photographer and creative director Mona Kuhn in L'Œil de la photographie: https://loeildelaphotographie.com/fr/evenement/los-angeles-topography-of-a-spirit-conversation-entre-mona-kuhn-et-yogan-muller/