Structuring Nature

As I photographed over the last few years, I became drawn not only to man’s encroachment into natural spaces but also our need for control over nature. Through photography, I explore the complex relationships we humans have with the natural world; a sense of its primal wildness runs through our spiritual passions and desires, yet we deny this connection by attempting to dominate and transform nature to serve our utilitarian needs. The natural world, in its purity, is wild, uncontrolled, and left unchecked; nature will take over. Emotionally, we may be drawn to it, but the wildness of nature fills no utilitarian purposes and may even hinder our ambitions. To reconcile this tension, we seek to control nature, to have it conform to our sense of practical order. This is evident in the contrasting appearances of a controlled version of the natural world in our constructed environments. We surround ourselves with a human-organized form of nature: neatly manicured lawns, heavily designed gardens and parks, and trees planted with orderly symmetrical rows and spacing. Sometimes we even create a fake version of nature. Often in nonresidential industrial areas, trees or bushes are planted. They serve no purpose but to have a small contrasting piece of nature that is controlled and maintained. Powerlines run through our cities and across the landscape. Electricity serves our utilitarian purposes and gives us control and comfort. Powerlines are so common that we have trained ourselves to see past them or through them; they don’t exist. We have a strong need for nature, but also a need to control nature and attempt to have it conform to our desired utility.

The photographs made for this continuing project have been taken primarily in the Western United States, in Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, and Texas.