22 February 2020 | New Scientist | 29A natural jewel
Photographer Kacper KowalskiTHIS speckled diamond looks
like it belongs in an Impressionist
painting. In fact, it is a photo
of a small island in a lake in
northern Poland.
The image comes from
Side Effects, a project by aerial
photographer Kacper Kowalski
about the complex relationship
between humans and nature.
To shoot his photos, Kowalski
takes to the air in a paramotor or a
gyrocopter, which he barely steers
to allow the wind to dictate the
direction. He sticks to the skies of
Pomerania, surrounding his home
in Gdynia, and rarely strays more
than 150 kilometres from where
he sets out.
Despite working within such
a small area, Kowalski’s work is
incredibly varied, as likely to
feature tourists sprawling on a
beach as the brightly coloured
effluent of a salt production plant.
But he often focuses on points of
tension or isolation, areas where
the natural world has been
accommodated, beaten back
or abandoned.
With this comes a carefully
studied neutrality: while the
viewer is invited to judge the
image, Kowalski never does so
himself. From such a vantage
point, the familiar is broken
down into shapes and colours,
emphasising form rather than
content – as befits his training as
an architect. With this abstraction
comes reflection and the kind of
perspective that can only come
from distance. ❚Bethan AckerleyKA
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