Vann Powell

The Rebirth of Tragedy | This series of black and white photographs evokes the emotions and feelings surrounding the phenomena of lost connection with nature. Myself and many others have struggled in a world that has become increasingly more drawn into the grips of technology and the ever present need for expanding growth and production.  What have we lost in this trade for supposed progress?

The Rebirth of Tragedy takes Fredrich Nietzsche's seminal work "The Birth of Tragedy” as it’s philosophical scaffolding. Here the dualistic Nietzschean cosmos as it is constructed from the Apollonian (reason, order, traditional concepts of beauty) and the Dionysian (chaos, the ecstatic, intoxication) play out in two discordant factors, ambling within today's human/natural world relation.  The images in The Rebirth of Tragedy look at the signs of growth, decay and unrequited attachment that have come to signify our stance and relation to nature. With signs of growth and separation from the natural world, I flesh out and draw attention to that feeling of lost place that may not be found again.  As we move further away from a connection to the natural world, into an every more simulated Anthropocene, I wonder what else has been lost, and if there is any redemption to salvage. /www.vannthomaspowell.photography/