Ideas About Wilderness

I keep returning to some fundamental ideas around wilderness as put forward by Henry David Thoreau. What does it mean to call something a wilderness? What is hidden or revealed in that title? What has changed in the ensuing years between his writing this and now? How do we, as humans, understand these concepts today and also, what are we fundamentally misunderstanding?

“The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild; and what I have been preparing to say is, that in Wildness is the preservation of the World. Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plough and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind.”

Henry David Thoreau

View more from this series here. To see more editions and projects from the studio, please follow along on our social media.