Natural Nature By Mankichi Shinshi

As an antithesis of the “old” idea of nature that displays on Google search, Japanese photographer Mankichi Shinshi created his series titled Natural Nature to show that our ordinary human lives and egocentric impact can be seen as an appearance of the modern nature. Shinshi explains: “I think people feel an excessive guilt to the advancement of modern society”. His photographs show scenes of man made nature, like tightly mown grass fields, and lonely plants in modern spaces placed next to objects of modern society including cars, concrete buildings and outdoors escalators. The artist intentionally collected photographs that show the unnaturalness of human existence and a sense of “weirdness made by artifact.” Shinshi depicts the interaction of modern society and nature, but also wants to make us realize how different this modern nature is: tame, and extremely organised.