Exploring terrain above and under the sea, artists Naomi White and Jann Rosen-Queralt take on the role of our guides through landscapes both stark in their beauty, showing how that this captured starkness is evidence of vulnerability. Part of the starkness is because of the landscapes chosen, but it should also be considered the limited evidence of either fish, or grazing creatures - the direct heirs to humanity's treatment of the natural environment. We all have watched videos of plastic bags trapping unexpected animals and sea life, killing them, conversely we also have seen videos of when our seas were full of sea life - looking at the works of these two photographers we see the effects of human life on the natural world.
Rosen-Queralt focuses her lens on the ranges in the sea in an almost sepia tone - reminding one of photographs from eras past suggesting the fragility of the marine environment and that one day, we may just be left with just these photos. As we expand and explore, it comes with a price - just as the expansion from east to west in America, altered, destroyed whatever it met in its path, this too is happening through discovery.
Naomi White focuses on the majesty of the environment capturing images of uninhabited spaces, but ones that are scarred by humanity either through telephone lines, or plastics floating into view. These floating plastics mar our experience with nature and hurl our environment into situations where plastic heroes the image. Both communication lines and plastics have made our lives so much easier - but White is questioning "at what cost?"
That is the reverberating question of both artists - "what is the cost of humanity's comfort?" How much more will we do, how long will this continue? How is our comfort and ease more important than the planet we share with mountains, reefs, fish, and wildlife?
