Transcendence (2024-2025)

Note: A selection of the images from this project are available to through Nathan's shop as a greeting card or a piece of wall art.

‘Signs of hope, signs of warning are all around, unseen, unheard, undetected. Most people can no longer read the signs: whether they live in a floodplain, whether they are rebuilding an urban neighbourhood or planting the seeds of its destruction, whether they are protecting or polluting the water they drink, caring for or killing a tree. 

Most have forgotten the language and cannot read the stories the wildflowers and saplings on vacant lots tell of life’s regenerative power; many do not understand the beauty of a community garden’s messy order. They cannot see or hear the language of landscape.’ - Anne Whiston Spirn, 1998 

Inspired by ‘The Language of Landscape’ by Anne Whiston Spirn, Transcendence is a visual story told from the perspective of one's own residential area, images of the neighbouring environment and still life details are combined, highlighting the mythological and spiritual significance of various natural elements from an everyday landscape.

Some of the images in the series echo the idea of the sublime and present a paradox, the clouds depicted throughout the series might prompt awe and anxiety in equal measure because their beauty and scale transcend basic human comprehension, although each moment illustrated is transient, fleeting, representing the change nature is constantly undergoing as the earth continues to constantly rotate on its axis, as the seasons constantly throughout the year.

The project is a personal one - mapping my very own spiritual journey as I navigate a transitional period in my life, representing a shift in my photographic practice, one from planning and previsualisation, to spontaneity and flexibility and a new found sense of openness and optimism.  

The language of landscape is anywhere, everywhere. People just have to stop, look and read to decrypt and decipher the message within their line of sight. Landscape images of a residential area situate the viewer into an everyday environment, from a first person perspective, allowing people to relate to what they are seeing with their everyday life.

A picture of an urban landscape is joined together with an image of a natural element from within the landscape depicted to create a diptych, providing an opportunity for the viewer to see the element in context, to see the scene from a different perspective, complemented by the close-up, minimalist detail, highlighting and bringing people closer to the spiritual significance of an everyday, residential landscape.