Chrystel Lebas: Regarding Nature

Chrystel Lebas (b.1966, France) uses photography and moving image to explore and illuminate the often complex relationships between human beings and nature; her interest is in looking at how landscapes carry psychological significance and reveal concealed histories. Preferring to photograph during twilight hours, she exploits the magical effects of the particular dipped light to accentuate the ‘sublime’ and draw attention to our place within the natural world.
This exhibition also presents work from a new series in collaboration with The Natural History Museum, London. Re-visiting traces the steps of British botanist and ecologist Sir Edward James Salisbury (1886-1978). Equipped with a notebook, a vasculum and a camera, he travelled through the Britain Isles, meticulously documenting the landscape and flora on glass plates for scientific purposes.
Nearly 100 years later, Lebas was inspired to revisit both his work and route, scouring areas of Scotland, Norfolk and Devon to find the exact locations where he would have stood to take his photographs. The resulting images provide a potent visual record of the ecological change that has taken place over time.