Kenya’s national parks and reserves offer tourists the chance to see wild animals in what remains of their natural habitat. In Maasai Mara, tourists engage in colonial fantasies while re-enacting the romantic picnic scene in the film, Out of Africa. Local Maasai tribesmen are employed to add authenticity to the experience. While Kenyan national parks provide a sanctuary, the animals living within them are allowed to survive essentially for human entertainment and reassurance. These animals become, in effect, performers for tourists eager to see a nostalgic picture-book image of the natural world.
Series Name: The Anthropocene Illusion
Series Description: In a tiny fraction of Earth’s history, humans have altered the world beyond anything it has experienced in tens of millions of years. Scientists are calling it a new epoch: The Anthropocene – the age of human. Future geologists will find evidence in the rock strata of an unprecedented human impact on our planet, from huge concentrations of plastics to the fallout from the burning of fossil fuels, and vast deposits of concrete used to build our cities. We are forcing animals and plants to extinction by removing their habitats, and divorcing ourselves from the land we once roamed. Yet we cannot face the true scale of our loss. Somewhere within us the desire for contact with nature remains. ‘So, while we devastate the world around us, we have become masters of a stage-managed, artificial ‘experience’ of nature – a reassuring spectacle, an illusion.’ Over six years, and across four continents, Zed Nelson has explored how we immerse ourselves in increasingly choreographed and simulated environments to mask our destructive impact on the natural world.
Prestiżowy tytuł Fotografa Roku 2025 przyznano znanemu brytyjskiemu fotografowi Zedowi Nelsonowi za cykl The Anthropocene Illusion (Złudzenie antropocenu). Zwycięzca otrzymał nagrodę pieniężną w wysokości 25 000 dolarów, cyfrowy sprzęt fotograficzny firmy Sony oraz możliwość zaprezentowania dodatkowych prac na wystawie Sony World Photography Awards 2026.
