Alicia Stadler
As a beginning photographer, my first instinct was to take photos as a reaction to beautiful things I encountered in the world. As I became more comfortable with my camera, my goal was to produce work that was more than reactionary and use my art to ask bigger questions about the world.
For this series, I was inspired by the essay “Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in L.A.” by Jenny Price. Price challenges the definition of nature as that which is untouched and unspoiled by humans and suggests that nature can be recognized in everything–even the inanimate. Using a framework of thirteen unique ways to understand nature, along with landscape photography by Steven B. Smith and Robert Adams, her essay makes a compelling case for reconsidering how we Angelenos view our city. The photos Price pulls from Smith and Adams capture how nature seeps into even the most industrial parts of Los Angeles. I was inspired by the way both photographers capture a sense of place intimately and honestly and I attempted to do the same in my project.
Landscape photography has always caught my eye; as an artform, it captures the dynamism and complexity of nature. More importantly, it lends itself to exploration of what nature really is. As a sustainability student, I am fascinated by the way humans define and interact with nature. For this project, I chose to use photography to challenge our conventional understanding of the desert as something lifeless and barren. I photographed the Mojave Desert–a place viewed by many as an expansive wasteland–in an attempt to capture the abundance of beauty and life that can be discovered there. This photo story is an attempt to capture my observations of the weird, bizarre, and awe-inspiring landscapes of Mojave, and especially the way they are touched by humans.
For this series, I was inspired by the essay “Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in L.A.” by Jenny Price. Price challenges the definition of nature as that which is untouched and unspoiled by humans and suggests that nature can be recognized in everything–even the inanimate. Using a framework of thirteen unique ways to understand nature, along with landscape photography by Steven B. Smith and Robert Adams, her essay makes a compelling case for reconsidering how we Angelenos view our city. The photos Price pulls from Smith and Adams capture how nature seeps into even the most industrial parts of Los Angeles. I was inspired by the way both photographers capture a sense of place intimately and honestly and I attempted to do the same in my project.
Landscape photography has always caught my eye; as an artform, it captures the dynamism and complexity of nature. More importantly, it lends itself to exploration of what nature really is. As a sustainability student, I am fascinated by the way humans define and interact with nature. For this project, I chose to use photography to challenge our conventional understanding of the desert as something lifeless and barren. I photographed the Mojave Desert–a place viewed by many as an expansive wasteland–in an attempt to capture the abundance of beauty and life that can be discovered there. This photo story is an attempt to capture my observations of the weird, bizarre, and awe-inspiring landscapes of Mojave, and especially the way they are touched by humans.