The painted backdrop of this chimpanzee enclosure at Shanghai Wild Animal Park in China is impressive in its artistry, but serves to provide a comforting illusion only to human observers. In their natural habitat in the forests of Central Africa, chimpanzees spend most of their days in the treetops. Being one of the most socially complex species among all non-human primates, chimpanzees in the wild live in societies ranging in size between 20 and 150 individuals.
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.
