#ginaglover

my anthropocene by gina glover 

this project was my main inspiration for the concept. I came across her photography in the ‘changing circumstances’ book that i used for my advanced research methods essay. It was hugely eyeopening for me, as I hadn’t come across/researched much documentary environmental photography. Her work simply documents our impact on the environment, without confronting the viewer as such, just simply capturing what is there and how we have affected the land. She creates aesthetically pleasing landscapes that are interrupted by ‘industrialisation’, showing how we interrupt the natural processes and beauty of nature

this reminds me of something I read yesterday, on how we have buried nature so far underneath our urban landscapes, but yet it is still there. We have covered over it but that doesn’t mean it ceases to exist. An interesting concept I would like to explore within my work. We have gained upmost control over it, but ultimately, it’s nature itself that decides our fate

“my photographs investigate the Anthropocene, or rather, My Anthropocene, since it is investigation by me about the world in which I live and move through. The word was coined in 2000 by atmospheric scientists to indicate the overwhelming changes brought about by humans over the last 200 years and especially in the last 70 years. The landscapes I investigate are places where human activity is pressing against ecological boundaries. If the Anthropocene is new, planet-scale concept, its precise form varies from place to place”

gina glover

i came across her work in the changing circumstances: looking at the future of the planet book, it stood out to me with it’s stunning aesthetics and hidden messages. i am particularly into documentary photography, so the way in which she has chosen to document the changing landscapes, and the overbearing amounts of man-made infrastructure is inspirational

i researched her work further, and found that all of her projects revolve around the planet and its current state. This project in particular, ‘my anthropocene’ communicated her view of the rapidly changing landscapes and her shift in everyday fears. Glover speaks of being brought up during the cold war, with the atomic bomb being the leading cause of her fears, in comparison to her present day fears of the natural world. “the risks to our planet cause me to shift my concerns to the living environment, prompting me, through my photography not only to document the scientifically assessed factors of risk but also to argue for a more caring and intelligent stewardship of the natural world” This is an interesting aspect embedded in her work, as she has experienced the industrial age and the growth of the economy, leading to the deterioration of our natural resources and our stable ecosystems, firsthand. She has grown up with the boom of technology, and witnessed the ever changing landscapes of the developed world. Glover has therefore felt the need and responsibility as a human, to record this change and investigate the anthropocene. “The word was coined in 2000 by atmospheric scientists to indicate the overwhelming changes brought about by humans over the last 200 years and especially in the last 70 years”. Here she has documented places of metabolic stress, areas in which the release of pollution and co2 are heavy, where natural resources are drastically depleting, and therefore where species are suffering most dramatically from our actions and the lack of their natural habitats