VIEWS OF NATURE, 2024

The nineteenth century marks the beginning of scientific modernity. While it offers important insights for understanding the contemporary world, the rationalization sparked in this era — categorizing, quantifying, and classifying nature — has also contributed to a sense of alienation in our present day. Humanity studies and controls nature, rather than seeing itself as part of it. Although the 19th-century scientist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) laid the groundwork for ecology as a science, his approach was deeply rooted in wonder and a profound appreciation for nature’s aesthetic beauty. Humboldt emphasized the importance of feeling and imagination in perceiving the natural world. Inspired by his eponymous travelogues, Views of Nature visualizes Humboldt’s outlook on the natural world using excerpts as both titles and starting points for the works

The cyanotype — a popular documentation tool among 19th-century botanists — allows for a counter-narrative. Through the toning of these cyanotypes, the series aims to adopt a character that mirrors the natural world while evoking a sense of wonder, mysticism, and feeling through their subject matter and pictorialism. While acknowledging the importance of science, Views of Nature reflects Humboldt's plea for feeling as a potential antidote to the alienation of the modern world.

"Nature must be experienced with feeling”, Humboldt wrote to Goethe. Scientists who wanted to describe the world exclusively by classifying plants, animals and stones would “never really get to know her”.