Seen in the Anthropocene.

Anthropo - Human, Cene - Current, New

Anthropocene - Human Age (Current Geological Epoch)

Greatly moved by the documentary film Anthropocene: the Human Epoch, and the book The Shock of the Anthropocene: the Earth, History and Us, I compiled this collection of photographs, renditions and cut-up-news as a visual protest of the degradation that our natural environment is suffering. The more I learned about this term - ANTHROPOCENE - the more I realized that it was a recurring subject in my photography and digital art, and was featuring a theme that blurs the line between what would be called the natural and human world. Tree lined highways jammed with traffic, endless urban sprawl rolling over hills, smoked filled skies, litter etc. This collection explores the impact man has over its natural environment and how it is transformed to meet its needs, often at the detriment of other life.

The idea of claiming the age and geological epoch we currently live in (and further back through history to a debatable point of origin) the Anthropocene means recognizing that human behavior has influenced and changed climate and ecology past the point of what natural processes would have. This puts us, and the entire biome, in a very uncertain position. It puts man in the position of steward of his environment, and protector of the variety of life.

As the natural world seems to collapse around us, the west coast of the United States is engulfed in flames, a global pandemic rages, and urban areas are gripped by protest demanding basic human rights, all while a federal government led by an inept and dangerous Executive, denies the very existence of these problems.

Personally influenced by the writings of Murray Bookchin, I think we need to review our place within the biome. Man is not apart of the natural world, but instead a part of it! The society we’ve created is by no means the sole path we could have taken. It is artificial in that it is made by humans themselves, but is also the artifice of a global elite hell bent on wrecking the planet for their own personal profit.

While the COVID 19 virus makes its way through the human sphere and populations are placed under lockdown to slow the spread, talk returns to the economy. The strength of the economy. Economic slow down. Recession. Depression. We can only take this as a vision of the future as our natural world is plundered and its rich diversity is destroyed. This collection is an attempt to orient people’s perception on the world they’re living in and how it is going through changes; lasting and devastating changes that are of our own creation. The economy and the natural world are not in accord with each other. Some get rich while the natural life of the planet is being murdered, placing all life in a precarious condition.

Compiled out of rage and frustration, this collection features photos taken over the past several years. They are mostly from New York City and surrounding New York State, but also Georgia, Washington DC, Massachusetts, California and Mexico. They showcase scenes of urban blight, traffic jams, litter, conspiracy theory.

Also featured are Renditions. They are digitally manipulated photos showing how corporate advertising and city skylines can remake a natural space.

Finally featured are Cut-Up-News. Cut-Up-News was a protest art form project I endeavored after Donald Trump won the presidential election in 2016, and continued for a couple of months. It comprised of taking photos, headlines and fragments of stories from newspapers to create a new story, often highlighting conflicting aspects of society and how they’re covered by the media.

Taken as a whole it lead me to the conclusion that THE MODERN WORLD IS SHIT.

But it doesn’t have to be. It is what we make it. After all, we are in the Anthropocene.

Reading List:

the Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey

Ecology or Catastrophe: the Life of Murray Bookchin by Janet Biehl

Shock of the Anthropocene: the Earth, History and Us by Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz

Ecology of Freedom: the Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy by Murray Bookchin

The Limits of the City by Murray Bookchin

Remaking Society: Pathways to a Green Future by Murray Bookchin

Which Way for the Ecology Movement by Murray Bookchin

Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: the Political Economy of Saving the Planet by Noam Chomsky & Robert Pollin with C.J. Polychroniou

Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England by William Cronon

Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon

Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How by Theodore J. Kaczynski

Industrial Society and its Future by Theodore J. Kaczynski

Hinterlands: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict by Phillip Neel

Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate by William Ruddiman