In the 1985 film From Africa In the lead role Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, a picturesque scene emphasizes the couple on a romantic picnic high above the radical Masai Mara National Reserve. Nowadays, tourists are invited to re-create the iconic moment in a colonial-inspired, Hillside Champagne Picnic experience for which “Local Masaai Tribesman is used to offer picturesque authenticity to the experience”, Zed Nelson say.
In his new book, The illusion of the anthropocene, Nelson takes us on a global journey that the veil is looking for, so to speak, about what we consider as “wilderness” and our always uncomfortable relationship with the environment. “While we destroy the natural world around us, we have become masters of a stage-managed, artificial ‘experience’ of nature-a reassuring spectacle, an illusion,” he says.
The Anthropocene defines the ever -evolving, rapid changes in the environment as a result of the unyielding impact of people. Many scientists place the Epoch’s origin During the industrial revolution, but some consider 1945 – the year that people have tested the atomic bomb – as it were. Still others suggest that the Anthropocene was initiated before, during the arrival of agriculture.
At that time we have entered into an increasingly uncomfortable relationship with the natural world, depending on more and more extractive processes, heavy production, plastics and advancing technology that all depend on the resources of the earth. The colonialist tendencies of our societies also apply just as much to nature as other areas occupied by people.
We are exhausted whole aquifursChanging the composition of the country forever and the irreparable damage to delicate ecosystems. All the while, Nelson shows, we subscribe to a nostalgic picture of unfeemed wilderness, while at the same time we expect that it will go to our lifestyle.
In Kenyan national parks such as Masai Mara, wildlife is offered as a sanctuary, “but the animals that live in it can essentially survive for human entertainment and reassurance,” says Nelson. “In fact, these animals become artists for paying tourists who would like to see a nostalgic picture book image of the natural world.”
The Nelson lighting series uses the absurdities of the illusion that nature is still flourishing as it once was. For example, artificial snow shot from a cannon in the Italian Dolomites nods to warmer winters. A result of the climate crisis, which leads to small snowThe powder is manufactured so that holidaymakers can ski.
From vines draped brutalist buildings to overcrowded national park viewpoints to half-tamle lions walked away as entertainers during a safari, he shares moments that feel skewed and incompatible, which indicates threatening and ultimately inevitable problems behind the veneer.
The illusion of the anthropocene Series achieved first place in the professional category of the 2025 Sony World Photography AwardsAnd the book, which will be released this month, is available for pre-order in the Gostesses store. Ten percent of the profit will be served to Friends of the Earth, a non -profit organization for environmental justice. See more about Nelson’s Instagram.
