Despite photography’s obvious potential to transcribe nature it has often had to struggle to affirm a position of seeing directly what is in front of the lens, and not through aesthetic styles and visual conventions.

Of all visual conventions, landscape may be the most difficult to escape. Works presented in Natureworks are intended to depict visual manifestations of the creative force at work in the universe, and not natural scenes. Traditionally this approach, trumpeted by modernist photographers at the turn of the previous century has been explored predominantly by formalists. The one clear exception is Karl Blossfeldt and the New Objectivity movement. Blossfeldt directed the viewer away from aesthetics and narration in his imagery much as a scientist does, by removing space and light. Blossfeldt’s passive approach is easily seen as rational, even scientific, begging the question “how does this creative process differ from science”. To this question one can only answer, if like the artist, the scientist is driven by awe and allows that state of elation to direct and modify his visual response, then that scientist is indeed an artist.