Tom Hegen is a German photographer specializing in aerial projects that document the effects of humanity on the Earth’s surface. By highlighting the complexity of the relationship between humans and our environment, Tom provides us with a unique angle of the locations from which we extract, refine, and consume resources. With solo exhibitions and group shows held all over the world, Tom’s work has been recognized by some of the most prestigious creative awards including The Red Dot Design Award, The International Photography Award, The Leica Oskar Barnack Award, and the German Design Award.

Tom’s abstract perspectives are a stunning, educational, and thought-provoking display of nature’s bountiful beauty and the role we play in our often parasitic but ideally symbiotic relationship. Here, Tom shares with us his inspiration for landscape photography as a communication tool, the need for more conscious resource extraction processes, and what it looks like as global agricultural practices evolve in the face of climate change. 

You have a unique approach to visual storytelling and you provide perspective on the relationship between humans and our environment. What led you to focus on this with your photography and work?  

I studied visual communication in my bachelor's and master's degrees. Communication design basically transfers information by using visual tools like graphic design, infographics, illustrations, motion pictures, or photography. During my studies, I discovered my joy of photography as a medium to express stories and art. I started with classic landscape photography with vast landscape views, classic foreground, middle-background compositions, and chasing the perfect light in the early beginnings. But, soon I realized that those sugar-coated shots do not represent their real environment. So, I began to question the term “landscape” in “landscape photography”. “Land” is a word of Germanic origin, and the roots of the suffix “scape” (German: “schaffen”) refers to the verb “shaping”. So, landscape in the sense of landscaping refers to an activity that modifies the visible features of an area. With this background, I began to read the landscape that surrounded me in a new way. Consequently, I started seeing landscape photography as a way to document places influenced by humans rather than landscape photography as showing pure, unspoiled nature.

Today, I try to apply the principles of communication design to my photography. I document the impact of humans on our natural world through fine art aerial photography. With my aerial photo projects, I aim to get the viewer's attention to issues they probably would not pay attention to. In this way, I still kind of work as a communication designer, telling visual stories through my images.

Can you share examples, both positive and negative, of landscapes and scenes you've showcased on this complex relationship, as well as their impacts?  

In the last few years, I have been documenting many places where our relationship with nature isn't for the best. For instance, brown coal mining in Germany is a topic that I've covered in two series and I also did two series about coal ash, which is stored in huge ponds after coal is burned. Those practices have a fairly negative impact on the environment in terms of affecting groundwater, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and also socio-critical aspects in terms of people and villages that have to be relocated.

But, I also witnessed very beautiful and harmonic ways in which humans interact with the environment. Last year, I traveled to Senegal to document traditional ways of salt production. This intense labour work is done by entire families that mainly work with the forces of nature. The saltworks on the shores of the Saloum river Delta resemble a remarkable testimony of the synergy between a natural environment and a style of human development that is still carried out in such primitive practices. 

Aerial captures a broader view of a large area of landscape that often carries more weight when we observe and reflect on the ways in which a series of actions can have a wide-scale effect. What are a few examples of this that you have witnessed/captured, and can you explain the cause and effect?  

I just returned from a field trip to Borneo where I was working on a series about illegal gold mining along the rivers in the primal forests. On the ground, I heard loud noises of the pumps that suck and flush the sediments below the forest, but I couldn't see much of those practices that were hidden behind vegetation or in the vast landscape. The sheer scale of destruction only became visible from an elevated viewpoint. Thousands of holes have been dug into the ground, and many square kilometers of forests vanished. Some of the rivers were also discoloured due to the washout of minerals in the ground.

You did a beautiful oyster farm series on the northwestern French Atlantic coast that revealed how a man-made landscape results as a consequence of the unique and complex bonds between human development and natural environments. Can you tell us a bit more about what you learned with this project?

When the tide pulls out the water from the shore, the beaches reveal rows and rows of oyster beds. The difference between high and low tides of up to twelve meters makes the area perfect for oyster farming. The combination of a mild summer climate and the fresh seawater renewed by the tide several times a day makes it a perfect nursery.

The behind-the-scenes footage of your Spanish Farmland Series gives a quick glimpse into the changing landscape that can materialize in a relatively short amount of time. What is the story behind this particular series? 

Due to permanent dry climatic conditions, a unique form of agriculture has developed in central Spain over the last centuries. In the area between Huesca and Madrid, the art of dry farming is practiced. The fields are cultivated during the winter season when rainfall is just sufficient to grow crops. Harvesting takes place just before the summer heat dries out the ground. After the harvest and before rainfall, the soil is roughly plowed to maximize water absorption. It is then sealed with rollers to reduce evaporation. The fields are also surrounded by stone walls and organized in terraces to minimize erosion. Dry farming is a sustainable method of agriculture, as the farmers use no additional irrigation other than rainfall.

These fields look like expressionist paintings when seen from above. The patterns of hills and terraces and the palette of earthy colours transform the area into a patchwork of organic plots, occasionally broken up by roads. Man thus becomes an abstract artist who shapes the Earth's surface.

Through your work, how has your growing understanding of the various effects on our global environment influenced your own life/lifestyle over time?

With each project that I undertake, I also learn something new about the world we live in—that is a very fulfilling and inspiring part of my job. However, I also understood that humans are a very dominant and selfish species. As a consequence, I try to be very grateful for what I have and value the resources that I consume.

Sometimes studying and reflecting as you are able to do with your unique perspectives for this type of observation can provide new insights and revelations for creative solutions. Have you had any such insights or revelations from your work and collaborations?

My work might deliver visual evidence of what science has to say.

In your TEDx talk, you discuss the ways in which aerial photography has given insights into how we as a species have developed over time and how we entered the Anthropocene. Can you explain this a bit?

The Anthropocene is a proposed term by a group of renowned scientists that suggest that we should rename the current geological area from Holocene to Anthropocene—the epoch in which humans are the most important factor influencing our planet. Humans are the first species since the origin of life to change the global ecology all by themselves. Our strong influence on Earth is a long and old story. Even before we planted the first wheat field or made the first metal tools—before we created the first coins—Homo Sapiens had driven fifty percent of Earth's large land mammals to extinction. In my first book, HABITAT, I tell the story of human development from the Neolithic revolution, some 10,000 years ago. This has also been discussed as the starting point of the Anthropocene. 

In your talk, you also speak to how a lot of modern technology has caused us to lose our sense of interconnectedness with ourselves, with one another, and with nature. How do you envision a return to this more connected way of living, despite knowing that modern technology remains a part of our world today?

A step towards the right direction is to appreciate and value resources that we often take for granted. Part of this is also to ask and remind us where goods come from, and how, where, and by whom they may have been produced. It's about a conscious interaction with our surroundings, whether it's people or nature.

More Info:

www.tomhegen.com