Nature Is Healing

Photo Exhibit, 2021


Design Mentor Fidel Peña
Photography & Art Direction Valentina Caballero

Recognition
Creato’s Nature with Nurture Exhibition  (2021)Sometimes irony does a better job at highlighting problems than just stating them outright. If you can get people to do a double take and question what they’re looking at, you can start a conversation about the issue at hand.

The name of this project was inspired by a series of social media posts that blew up at the beginning of the first lockdown in March 2020.

It all started with a tweet claiming that the water in the Venice Canals was clearing up for the first time in a long while and that dolphins had been seen returning to the area due to reduced human activity caused by the pandemic. The user claimed nature was “resetting” itself.

This post brought an onslaught of memes making fun of the very statement by saying “nature is healing” and then pairing the comment with unnatural objects in natural environments.

That meme really stuck with me and I kept on thinking about that phrase whenever I’d see disposable masks littered on the streets and green spaces. It really was another example of something unnatural becoming a common part of nature.