Etzweiler (Germany) 2014-07

German photographer Rafael Cardenas presents a different view of the world in his large-format, circular works.

In a complex process, he stitches together 200 to 300 high-resolution satellite images, freely accessible, for example, from Google Earth and NASA. The landscapes photographed from space all have something in common: they exhibit signs of human activity that have altered nature. From the scale of the images, it becomes clear that what initially appear to be microscopic human interventions in nature are actually of dimensions that cannot be perceived from the normal human perspective.

The photographs make the dimensions of worldwide changes in nature visible. Even if Cardenas, by his own admission, only wants to view and map these traces, the artist, contrary to the current discussion about climate change, almost senses an “untimely urge to reconcile man with his cultural landscape.” [1] His photographic and thus aesthetic view looks critically at the changes wrought in nature, but not without confidence in the future.



[1] Rafael Cardenas, artist’s description of the work, 2019.