Creative Shortlist

There have been 37 epochs in the history of Earth. Humans have been here for fewer than two of these, yet our impact has been greatly outsized. Nature continues to reinvent itself, but can we adapt with it? Will we be part of the next chapter?

With this series I have mounted scenes of habitation behind acrylic, as if we can separate the things we do from having an impact on the natural world, and placed these within sweeping landscapes of the deserts of the American southwest – a stand-in for a future planet shaped by rising temperatures. The constructed world behind the acrylic is protected, while the landscapes, though durably printed on aluminium, remain exposed. The continuity of line and colour between these scenes points to their interconnectedness and the multi-layered images are finished with hand-painted frames, alluding to the planet’s next chapter. As the image pushes beyond the frame, the story continues to evolve.

Diana Cheren Nygren is a photography based artist located in Boston. Her work explores the relationship of people to their physical environment and landscape as a setting for human activity. She was trained as an art historian focussed on modern and contemporary art, and the relationship of artistic production to its socio-political context.
Her work has received numerous awards including Discovery of the Year at the Tokyo International Photo Awards and the Prix de la Photographie.