Silver Eye

Nathan Cephas is a multidisciplinary artist, born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In As It Is, he presents selected works that trace his entwined relationship with nature and image-making.

These images were taken during slow walks, in the Pittsburgh area, and surrounding green spaces.

Over the last seven years, two of my main focuses with image-making have been traveling without leaving the Pittsburgh Area, and the sacred, ethereal, and primordial essence of the land on which we walk~ right here in the city.

The idea of traveling while home has become one of the foundations of my image-making over the past seven years, becoming more intimate with the land around me by adopting eyes that are foreign to my everyday environment, as if I were a traveler in a new place. This has allowed me distance from the ordinary to be able to see things in their wholeness.

My primary premise has been reflecting on the primordial, the original, the before, prior to these locations ever having names, before humans left any significant footprint on the planet on which we live.

Thinking about the primordial opens the door to seeing where we are in history, and I’ve found it increasingly challenging to ignore the damage done to the ever-giving environment with which we coexist.

These images were made using large- and medium-format film cameras, allowing me to work at a much slower pace. The intention was to embrace the detail, tonal range, and scale inherent in these formats, lending each image the sense of a window, a portal, or mirror.

In some ways, my ongoing work in landscape photography serves as a memoriam to Earth. It is no secret that the planet is dying; through my work, I wish to honor it and say “thank you” by using materials and processes that remain close to the earth and its original source.

In rhythm with the Earth, not against.

Participating Artist

1. Nathan Cephas is a multidisciplinary artist, born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.