“Intimate Landscapes” presents the human body resting on dry, lifeless earth, referencing the ancient maxim: “From dust you came, and to dust you shall return.” The earth is depicted as a primordial mother—both the cradle of life and its final resting place, a space to which we inevitably return.

Through these images, I explore the dual nature of human existence. The human body becomes a metaphor for transience—we are born from the earth, draw strength from it, and ultimately merge back into it.

The culmination of the cycle is an image where the human body ceases to be a separate entity—it becomes rock, landscape, a part of the natural order. In this moment, the boundary between what is organic and inorganic dissolves, and transience takes on an almost cosmic dimension. The body does not merely return to the earth; it becomes the earth itself—a timeless element of the landscape, a testament to the cyclical nature of existence, a reminder of the inevitable return to the source.

This cycle is a reflection on the inescapable fate of human existence, its fragility, and the inseparable bond between humans and nature—a bond from which we emerge and to which we are constantly drawn.

Kamila J Gruss