From its beginnings in the late 1800s, photography has idealized the natural world. Photography elevated the pristine environment, evoking the sublime and motivating the protection of natural beauty. Simultaneously, photographic land surveys acted as guides on how to exploit nature, whether through infrastructure, extraction, or armed forces, determining who was displaced. In the Anthropocene—the current geological age in which human activity has been the dominant influence on the environment—lens-based artists are imaging an even more rapidly changing ecology. In Nature on Notice, more than 20 artists from around the globe engage in a visual dialogue about the “new nature” we are living in. Illuminating the need for both artistic and scientific imagination to counter threats to our ecology, these makers speak sensitively to the changes they are witnessing or, as a counterpoint, refer to cultures that have long revered nature while most of the world has steadily consumed it.

Artist in residence Michele Lorusso’s installation, Dispositivo II and Dispositivo III (2024), is multi-layered: defined as art, design, activation space and contemplation zone, and encompassing both the personal and the collective. He asks viewers to take a seat, reflect on current and future climate balance, and to write a postcard to their future selves. The postcards are to be dropped into a mailbox that acts as a time capsule and years later will be delivered to the letter writers.