Nature and landscape

Aeon Essays and Videos on Nature and landscape

Architecture Art Biography and memoir Dance and theatre Design and fashion Film and visual culture Food and drink Home Music Nature and landscape Rituals and celebrations Sports and games Stories and literature Subcultures Travel

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Aerial photo of an industrial conveyor unloading material into a turquoise water body, surrounded by carved sand dunes.

videoProgress and modernity

From Michigan to Singapore, a meditation on dreams built on sand

17 minutes

Photo of a snow leopard looking up with a mountainous background and some foliage in the foreground.

videoAnimals and humans

There’s a gentle artistry to a museum taxidermist’s craft

8 minutes

Photo of a person with glasses holding a clarinet, finger to lips in a shushing gesture, blue sky background.

videoNature and landscape

A breezy ode to wind ponders its power, beauty and utility

10 minutes

Black and white photo of an elderly man with a thoughtful expression wearing a light coloured shirt.

videoArt

How Robert Frost summoned a classic from life’s timeless moments

10 minutes

Painting of a green and pink landscape with a prominent flat-topped mountain and a cloudy sky in the background.

essayArt

My private mountain

Through her paintings, Georgia O’Keeffe laid claim to New Mexico’s desert landscape. But it was never hers for the taking

Alanna Offield

Painting of a black bird with a red tail on a white tree branch set against a blue sky and yellow landscape.

videoNature and landscape

Scenes from Aboriginal Australian pottery chart the turn of the seasons

7 minutes

Abstract digital art of a web-like cosmic structure with purple and orange filament patterns, resembling a universe simulation.

essayCosmology

Rivers of galaxies

What are the largest shapes in the Universe? The answer might be found in the most unassuming places here on Earth

Mark Neyrinck

Painting of a vast landscape featuring rocky hills, a woman with a child and distant snow-capped mountains under a cloudy sky.

videoNature and landscape

After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint

15 minutes

Photo of a man lying on a bed with white sheets, looking peaceful against a blue background.

videoConsciousness and altered states

What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?

12 minutes

Photo of a modern house built over a waterfall, surrounded by dense green forest and a rocky stream.

videoArchitecture

A lush tour of Fallingwater – the Frank Lloyd Wright design that changed architecture

14 minutes

Photo of a woman in a floral headscarf with a man in the background against a rural autumn landscape under a clear sky.

videoHome

Life moves slowly in a Romanian mountain village, shaped by care and the seasons

13 minutes

A painting of a mythical forest scene with centaurs, satyrs and wild animals in a chaotic setting.

videoNature and landscape

‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden

5 minutes

Painting of a vibrant green hillside with trees and a winding river, showing detailed textures and overlapping colours.

videoNature and landscape

California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker

10 minutes

Photo of three children in winter jackets sitting on grassland near a stream with a plastic container between them.

videoAnimals and humans

Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way

13 minutes

A wooden cabin on a grassy hill with a mountainous backdrop and cloudy sky in the distance.

videoKnowledge

Why it takes more than a lifetime to truly understand a single meadow

11 minutes

Photo of people in a forest, some kneeling and examining plants, others standing and walking, all surrounded by lush greenery.

essayFood and drink

The joy of foraging

Offering an escape from industrial foods, foraging nourishes the soul and body, but it needs democratic access to the land

Nikita Sud

Fresco fragment with geometric borders framing curved shapes representing waves crashing upon the shore, partially damaged.

essayNature and landscape

Laughing shores

Sailors, exiles, merchants and philosophers: how the ancient Greeks played with language to express a seaborne imagination

Giordano Lipari

A brick house with a tiled roof, surrounded by a well-maintained garden with bushes and colourful flowers.

essayHome

Falling for suburbia

Modernists and historians alike loathed the millions of new houses built in interwar Britain. But their owners loved them

Michael Gilson

Aerial view of a large pipeline construction site with machinery and vehicles cutting through green fields and hills under a partly cloudy sky.

essayNature and landscape

Land loneliness

To survive, we are asked to forget that our lands and bodies are being violated, policed, ripped up, silenced, sacrificed

Kelsey Day

Black and white snowy mountain scene with vehicles, overlaid by a large smear of vivid blue paint in the upper right area.

videoKnowledge

An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place

4 minutes

A person with light blonde hair, wearing a dark hoodie, stands on a cliff by the sea, holding a bird. The sea is rough with waves crashing against the rocks, and several rock formations are visible in the misty background.

videoChildhood and adolescence

The unique fellowship between teens and young puffins on a remote Icelandic island

20 minutes

A serene landscape of snowy trees and hills set against a backdrop of a yellow sky and blue mountain range, with a bird flying by.

videoStories and literature

Robert Frost’s poetic reflection on youth, as read in his unforgettable baritone

5 minutes

A person is sitting on the edge of a traditional Japanese building, looking out at a lush garden. Sunlight illuminates the foliage, creating a serene atmosphere.

videoArchitecture

The celebrated architect who took inspiration from sitting, waiting and contemplating

29 minutes

A person stands in a sunlit forest, holding a compound bow, and wearing outdoor gear with a backpack.

videoDeath

A hunter’s lyrical reflection on the humbling business of being mortal

6 minutes