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| Kai Blatt 2015 |
This series of
photographs explores the relationship between humans and nature; how we alter,
destroy, preserve, and attempt to recreate wilderness in our pursuit of a balance
between built environment and the natural world.
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| Kai Blatt 2015 |
Skyline
The sun has slipped below the treetops,
leaving a rosy glow lingering over the landscape for the last minutes of the
day. Only the skeletal forms of bridges and cranes mar the pristine beauty,
their silhouettes scarring nature’s skyline with sharp angles of industry and
rigid lines of civilization. Perhaps humans have always marveled at sunsets,
but the idealization of nature that exists today has not always been. It was once
man versus nature, and wilderness was a force that people struggled to tame just
to survive. As William Cronon posits in his essay “The Trouble with Wilderness:
or, Getting back to the Wrong Nature,” the concept of wilderness is a human
invention, something we differentiated ourselves from and then constructed an
image of. Today, our “wilderness” has been cleared of human inhabitants,
enclosed within borders, simplified to the species we find appealing, and
commodified for the wealthy. It is something distant from the environment we inhabit,
yet still we manage to encroach ever further.
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| Kai Blatt 2015 |
Scaffold
According to Scott Campbell’s essay “Green
Cities, Growing Cities, Just Cities? Urban Planning and the Contradictions of
Sustainable Development,” it is up to urban planners to juggle the issues of
economic development, environmental protection, and social equity. At the
center of this “planner’s triangle” is truly sustainable development, a
near-mythic goal that no one individual can hope to attain. This photograph
depicts construction in a courtyard on a college campus. Visible through the
scaffolding, stacks of lumber lie covered in plastic, awaiting use. The wood is
central in one of the key conflicts in Campbell’s triangle. Resource conflict,
as he calls it, is what arises between the simultaneous goals of supporting the
economy and the environment. As trees were being felled and the resulting
planks of wood were being transported, a landscaper was selecting the greenery
that would fill the planters in the courtyard.
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| Kai Blatt 2015 |
Archway
If private
institutions and wealthy individuals have the luxury of both depleting
resources and recreating backyard versions of the environments they’ve helped
destroy, what is left for the urban poor? In the article “Places to Play:
Environmental Justice and the Distribution of Urban Parks and Recreation in Los
Angeles,” Jennifer Wolch argues the importance of public parks and “green
infrastructure” in moderating environmental hazards while providing underserved
demographics with spaces to socialize and exercise. Wolch specifically proposes
the repurposing of urban alleyways into public greenspace. This photograph
shows a large park sited on what was once an industrial compound. Behind the
concrete arches, on the other side of the grass, is a leftover complex of tanks
and pipes, now overtaken by vines, with birds nesting in its hollows. The park
provides a successful model for the revitalization of urban land, reclaiming
the built environment as a space where nature can still flourish.
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| Kai Blatt 2015 |
Greenhouse
According to the
executive summary “Cities and Biodiversity Outlook: Action and Policy – A
global assessment of the links between urbanization, biodiversity, and
ecosystems services” from the Convention on Biological Diversity and ICLEI, biodiversity
and food security in urban areas are intrinsically linked. This photograph of a
college farm shows the cultivation of crops and the study of a rich variety of
species occurring side by side. The scientific study of ecological
relationships alongside the practice of food production is indicative of
students both aware of these issues and intent to pursue solutions for how to
better integrate them into urban communities.
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