Human/Nature: Photographers Constructing the Natural World

Human/Nature: Photographers Constructing the Natural World

Long-revered conventions have held that landscape and nature photography should minimize evidence of human presence. In this framework, the best images offer up the pristine vistas that photographer Lewis Baltz has wryly characterized as “the privileged world of pure nature.” The ten artists in Human/Nature: Photographers Constructing the Natural World play with and against this tradition. In the work on display, these artists treat signs of humanity, and our activities, as essential, constitutive elements of their image-making practice rather than as undesirable or unfortunate inclusions. Drawing upon American photography from the 1960s to the present in the Norton Simon’s permanent collections, this exhibition sees “nature” and “culture” not in opposition, but in dialogue.

The Norton Simon Museum
411 W Colorado Blvd, 
Pasadena, CA 91105

The Norton Simon Museum collections include: European paintings, sculptures, and tapestries; Asian sculptures, paintings, and woodblock prints; and sculpture gardens displaying many sculptors' work in a landscape setting around a large pond. The museum contains the Norton Simon Theater, which shows film programs daily, and hosts lectures, symposia, and dance and musical performances year-round. The museum is located along the route of the Tournament of Roses's Rose Parade, where its distinctive, brown tile-exterior can be seen in the background on TV.

For more information: http://www.nortonsimon.org/