by Nicolò SertorioI consider myself privileged: I am white, male, educated, healthy, living in the Western world. I am, however, part of a ‘disenchanted generation’: born after WWII when globalization seemed like a great idea, a path towards one big happy family, only to be awaken to a hard reality of inequality and environmental abuse. Nowadays hardly a day goes by without some alarming news: ice melting, fresh water contamination, overpopulation, corporate greed, food poisoning, oil dependency, wealth inequality, the list goes on. It seems the world lost it’s mystery to become the playground of the very few at the expense of the rest. I believe the resulting sense of powerlessness has left us disenfranchised, resulting in a lack of social or environmental accountability.
But is this really the only way? Do we really need to follow this dead-end path?
I experience the context for the work as presenting the viewer with a world where humanity’s need for insatiable consumption has led it to the ultimate consumption, that of the consumption of the self. From this point we are brought to a world where humanity has disappeared and only nature remains. We are presented with a series of images that brings forth nature in it solemness. Nature has endured and now overcome the weight of humanity’s selfish orientation and we are reunited with nature’s beauty and mystery.
Presented as an hypothetical archeological study on the nature of coexistence, it is my hope that we can still assume both global and individual responsibility, that we can still change our path forward.
To see more of Nicolo Sertorio’s photography, please visit his website and Altpick page.
The Pick 