Hyper Nature: Imaging of The Anthropocene 

The strangest thing about this remarkable return of “humankind” into history is that the Anthropocene provides the clearest demonstration that, from an environmental point of view, humanity as a whole does not exist.

—C. Bonneuil, J.-B. Fressoz

The Anthropocene—defined as the epoch in which human activity has become the dominant force shaping the Earth's ecosystems and geology—offers a lens through which to interrogate humanity's entangled relationship with the natural world. My photographic series, Hyper Nature: Imaging of The Anthropocene, examines this intersection, specifically how our industrial-scale reshaping of urban and natural habitats manifests in visual and conceptual contradictions. The images portray a surreal merging of the built and the natural, revealing a fractured yet poignant dialogue between humanity's constructed environments and our collective imaginations of nature.

At the heart of this series lies an exploration of artificial representations of nature embedded within urban contexts: eco imagery on construction hoardings, lush backdrops that obscure decaying infrastructure, and carefully curated landscapes sanctioned by urban planning authorities. These installations and objects serve as placeholders for nature, simultaneously a longing for ecological connection and underscoring the paradox of their artificiality. Particularly in cities like Shanghai and other rapidly developing regions, this phenomenon takes on heightened significance. The drive to beautify public spaces with illusory depictions of greenery speaks to a deep psychological unease, as though we are in a state of confusion by the impacts we perpetuate.

The Anthropocene collapses the boundary between the natural and the artificial. Humanity’s influence on Earth has become so pervasive that even the ecosystems we romanticize are irreversibly marked by our interventions. As historians C. Bonneuil and J.-B. Fressoz argue, the Anthropocene reveals that “humanity as a whole does not exist” in a singular, unified sense; instead, there are fragmented realities, shaped by social, political, and environmental disparities. My work attempts to capture these disparities, juxtaposing gleaming new developments with deteriorating remnants of the past, and false paradises of nature with their urban surroundings.

The psychological implications of this merging are profound. In these urban settings, nature becomes a curated product, a design element deployed to pacify, distract, or inspire. Yet this pacification is inherently unsettling. The ‘natural’ contents of my subjects emphasize their artifice, highlighting the dissonance between our instinct to control and our yearning for authenticity. These artificial visions of nature evoke what could be described as a “constructive catastrophe”: a self-fulfilling cycle in which we simultaneously destroy and rebuild, fabricate and mourn.

By embedding these themes within photographic compositions, I aim to question humanity's relationship with the future. The Anthropocene is not merely a geological epoch but a cultural construct that forces us to reconsider our place in the world. Are these representations of nature a fracture or split within our collective versions of the so-called ‘natural world’, a form of negotiation between ourselves, our geographic impacts, and Earth? Or do they reflect a march towards a fully synthetic existence, where nature itself is subsumed within an overarching virtualisation of reality - in service to imaginings of the emerging metaverse?

Theories of entropy and decay also inform my work. Urban landscapes, whether under construction or in decline, reveal the impermanence of human achievement. The juxtaposition of decaying infrastructure with vibrant, utopian imagery creates a tension that mirrors broader ecological and social anxieties. These anxieties are amplified in regions like China, where rapid urbanization collides with traditional conceptions of harmony between humanity and nature. The result is a unique aesthetic language, one that blends the large-scale urban impact with the nostalgic, the beautiful with the absurd.

Through this series, I hope to contribute to a broader conversation about the Anthropocene. Drawing on thinkers like Donna Haraway, who calls for new ways of “staying with the trouble,” and Timothy Morton, whose concept of hyperobjects underscores the scale of ecological crises, my work seeks to provoke reflection. By framing the urban as a site of both destruction and reinvention, I invite viewers to grapple with the contradictions in our perceptions and understandings of the world.

Ultimately, Hyper Nature: Imaging of The Anthropocene is not simply a critique of humanity’s impact on the planet but an invitation to reimagine our relationship with the world we inhabit. The surreal, layered compositions of the series serve as both a mirror and a question: How do we reconcile the artificial with the authentic, the natural with the man-made? And as we journey deeper into the Anthropocene, what visions of nature will we carry forward.