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GAIA 2003-2018

This photobook investigates the conflict and the negotiation between humankind and nature. The artist’s personal story – like in a diary – is juxtaposed with the images of the landscapes where he grew up or in which he ventured in search of the power of the nature.

“When I was still at school I titled my diploma work “Nature does not exist” and I soon clashed with the fact that human influence had already acted in every corner of the planet, even in those distant places where life is deemed particularly difficult, barely impossible. So I started looking for these distant places, where this conflictual relationship could materialize and help me in my photographic research. From the glaciers that plunge into the Svalbards waters to the desert of Central Iran, the answer is always the same. Nature retrieves its place and its sites. It’s just a matter of time and it is exactly what we don’t have.” (Tonatiuh Ambrosetti)