The Vanishing Gaze — Nature remains. The gaze disappears.
Inspired by Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818), I created a six-part visual story reimagining Romanticism through the lens of contemporary digital culture.
The series follows a solitary wanderer as his relationship with nature changes from genuine wonder to capturing, monetizing, simulating, and eventually replacing the natural experience with virtual reality.
The landscape remains sublime throughout; what disappears is the human capacity to truly encounter it.
Created using a custom Recraft V4 Style based on a public-domain archival artwork.: