True wilderness is harder and harder to come by these days. With urban sprawl and the continued destruction of natural spaces to make way for industry and housing, getting a chance to experience the untouched wild is much more difficult than it used to be.
Which is exactly what inspired Ellie Davies to create a photo series surrounding the wild and our changing perceptions of how we fit into it. Based out of London, Davies weaves (sometimes literally) manmade or out of place objects through the landscape in order to draw the point that, to many, the wilderness is only a construct. Something that we apply our perceptions, preconceptions and assumptions to in order to create.
“Making a variety of temporary and non-invasive interventions in the forest, my work places the viewer in the gap between reality and fantasy, creating spaces which encourage the viewer to re-evaluate the way in which their own relationship with the landscape is formed,” Davies says of her work. “the extent to which it is a product of cultural heritage or personal experience, and how this has been instrumental in their own identity.”
Thought provoking and beautiful, these photographs manage to capture both the elusiveness and wonder of the woods while illustrating that this very wonder may be something we’ve created ourselves.
