Umana Natura

Umana Natura explores the profound and inseparable connection between humanity and the natural world. In a time of deep ecological uncertainty, the project traces the fading boundaries between our inner landscapes and the environments we inhabit.

“It is vain to dream of a wild nature far from us. It does not exist. It is the marsh of our brain and our entrails, the primitive power of nature within us, that inspires the dream.”

— Henry David Thoreau

The book project "Umana Natura" explores the deep and inseparable connection between humanity and nature. Driven by the environmental crisis and a deep concern for the future of our planet, we combine documentary and symbolic approaches to reveal the significance of our ancestral past, our DNA, as an unconscious catalyst of revelation. At the same time, we contemplate possible futures, oscillating between dystopian landscapes and the resilience of humanity. This work interrogates human nature and identity, focusing on belonging, transformation, birth and mortality.

The project was carried out with the collaboration of  some academic institutions, which provided both material and conceptual depth. The Università di Roma La Sapienza, through its Departments of Natural Sciences, Anthropology, and Medicine, granted us access to its archives and research spaces, while the Museum of Natural History in Strasbourg gave us privileged access to its extensive collection warehouse. These collaborations helped our investigation on humanity in a process of distancing from its own heritage, blurring its links with natural archetypes and unconsciously igniting a slow but persistent transformation, perhaps even a mutation, in its very essence.

The Roman philosopher Lucretius, in "De Rerum Natura" explains that: "Thus every visible thing does not entirely perish, for one thing from the next nature recreates, and allows none to be born except by the death of another”.  This idea of cyclical transformation inspired our exploration of human evolution and the effects of our environmental disconnection.

The book unfolds through a dialogue between natural specimens, contemporary imagery and scientific research. Visual contrasts and sequencing create a layered narrative that reflects the tension between nature and humanity, memory and transformation.

In a time of environmental and societal change, "Umana Natura" reexamines our relationship with the past to question how it shapes our present and future. Through these photographs, contemporary imagery, and scientific research, the book traces the fragile balance between human identity and the natural world, revealing the subtle yet profound shifts that define our existence.