Josephine Kowalewsky
How to be a landscape
How to be a landscape
Josephine Kowalewsky
How to be a landscape is a series of self-portraits taken in Lanzarote, a volcanic island with an arid climate where adaptation to extreme conditions has long been a necessity. In the context of the climate crisis, the human ability for adaptation will become increasingly relevant.
This work explores adaptation—not as a survival strategy, but as a visual and physical experiment.
In each image, the body is positioned within the landscape, attempting to merge with it. Rather than imposing itself, it follows the terrain—passive, tentative, and absorbed. The attempt is deliberate but naive, a quiet game of hide and seek with nature. At first glance, the body may seem integrated, but on closer inspection,
it remains exposed—human, vulnerable, and displaced.
This project examines the limits of adaptation. It highlights the contrast between the softness of the body and the roughness of the surroundings, emphasizing both the vulnerability of human presence in nature and the impossibility of full integration. The work reflects on the tension between the desire to belong and the unavoidable separation from the environment, raising questions about our relationship with nature in a time of ecological crisis.