In many of these images two types of terrain meet. Sometimes they just clash, stopping at a wall where the other starts. In other images they interfere, merge and colors and textures of water, trees, crops, and soil change. We see events too slow, too big and too subtle to seen on the ground.



We see the random beauty of rippling water, algae and lava flows, the absurdity of a round-about in the desert, the alien effect of snow covering machinery and farm land.  We are lured into a point of view that shows human activity as a bold but crude and interesting growth on the earths surface.  Almost as a natural phenomenon.



And what is the power that enables us to leave the surface of our day to day human perspective in which culture and nature are obvious opposites and in which utility and comfort rule? The answer is: beauty. And as the saying goes: it is in the eye of the beholder. The position of beholder these images produce is that of a gliding bird, an imaginary bird, half human, half alien, with an ancient soul. He sees, he zooms in, he doesn’t judge or explain, he produces beauty as if it were knowledge. He doesn’t care that we are unsure what to do with it or what it means. Maybe the value of these images it that they are beautiful and raise uncertainty in one gesture.











Text fragment courtesy: Almost Nature / Dirk van Weelden (2015)