Bryce’s Red Earth

Bryce Kraehenbuehl is the winner of our 2026 SALA SOLO prize. Bryce’s work was chosen from an array of applications made late 2025, and it was his short film made on vintage 16mm aerial surveillance film that grabbed our attention.

An edit of the film, and stills made using the same film were shown at Praxis Artspace during the month of SALA 2026.

Our part of the prize is the production of the works. I had the pleasure of working with Bryce over several months as he digitised the stills using our Imacon scanner, we worked on the selections together, test prints and the final round of printing. Bryce had chosen some vintage ornate frames to display the works in, and over the final week I framed the works.

Patty from Praxis, Gavin Blake and I all felt the uneasy, distortions of the colour of the imagery. The infrared sensitive film flips familiar greens to a magenta-red. When this is done to familiar landscapes, it’s really effective. I read a post-apocolyptic, empty story from it. While discomforting, it is wildly attractive.

SALA exhibtion page link: https://www.salafestival.com/artfuel/program/view/13180
Bryce’s Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/bruce_crayonblue/

I’ll be interviewing Bryce for our podcast in the coming weeks.