GREGORY COLBERT

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Gregory Colbert is a Canadian filmmaker and photographer best known as the creator of Ashes and Snow. We went to his exhibition back in 2006 at Santa Monica pier, and was completely amazed by his work, since then we became a big fan. Putting together his bio and photos for this post, we realized that the “house" of Ashes and Snow is called Nomadic Museum, what a nice surprise! We completely forgot that it was called Nomadic!

Nomadic Museum, is a purpose-built temporary structure imagined by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, used to house his traveling Ashes and Snow film and photography exhibition. Just as Colbert aims, in his films and photographs to depict a world without hierarchy between species, a place where there is no "other," he intends the Nomadic Museum to be inclusive, not elitist, a democratic expression of the wonder of nature that is accessible by visitors of all cultural and social backgrounds.

Colbert sees himself as an apprentice to nature. His works are collaborations between humans and other species that express the poetic sensibilities and imaginations of human and animals. His images offer an inclusive non-hierarchical vision of the natural world, one that depicts an interdependence and symmetry between humanity and the rest of life.

"I would define what I do as storytelling…what’s interesting is to have an expression in an orchestra—and I’m just one musician in the orchestra. Unfortunately, as a species we’ve turned our back to the orchestra. I’m all about opening up the orchestra, not just to other humans, but to other species." Colbert

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"In exploring the shared language and poetic sensibilities of all animals, I am working towards rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people saw themselves as part of nature and not outside of it. The destiny of whales cannot be separated from the destiny of man, and the destiny of man cannot be separated from the destiny of all of nature. I am exploring new narratives that help build a bridge across the artificial boundaries we have established between ourselves and other species." Gregory Colbert

Get to know more of his amazing work at GREGORY COLBERT.

Here is a photograph of the Nomadic Museum. I hope to go again one day!