Trish Sachdev

Human Fixture, 2023
Digital Photograph, 5 x 7 in.

This photo expresses the ideal intimate relationship between people and nature by framing the model wearing natural colours and making an organic silhouette within the trees and grass at Storm King Art Center, an open air museum in Orange County, New York. The pixelated effect comes from my retaking the photo on my camera screen with my phone. I find the integration of pixels with nature to be unnatural yet incredibly fitting given how, today, we frequently view natural wonders from a distance through our screens. To me, the pixelated filter represents the encroachment of modern human civilization on the natural world. How does viewing landscapes through a screen alter our relationship with nature? More specifically, to what extent does this technological way of seeing inhibit our ability to connect with our natural environment?

Trish Sachdev is a junior at NYU Gallatin studying Expressive Communication. Her goal is to creatively alleviate social and environmental grief for individuals and communities by raising awareness about these issues through her emotionally charged artwork. Her most recent project took form as photo installations on the Subway that showcase nature's destruction by expressing climate grief and encouraging intentional observation. Her favourite texts include The Red Deal that details the Red Nation's proposed action plan to foreword Indigenous ways of living as well as poems such as When Great Trees Fall by Maya Angelou & Map of the New World by Joy Harjo that personify nature to incite empathy for the Earth.