Two cities: one hopelessly romantic, the other hopelessly kitsch. One claims dominion over the water; another over the desert. Both are master examples of the triumph of modern engineering over the natural world and both are utterly artificial in construct.

Alex S. MacLean has been been aerially photographing the cities of Venice, Italy and Las Vegas, Nevada, at the bequest of the Berlin Akademie der Künste. The AdK commissioned MacLean to make these images (which were all taken in the fall of 2009) to form the centerpiece of their current exhibition, The Return of the Landscape, March 12, 2010 through May 30, 2010.

Venice, 2009 by Alex S. MacLean

Las Vegas, 2009 by Alex S. MacLean

From the press release for the show:

The 20th-century city was built in opposition to the landscape. The ecological consequences of this have been climate change, a shortage of water, and the loss of biodiversity. The 21st-century city therefore has to be developed in accordance with the landscape, using creative and sustainable solutions and a new and more holistic approach.

The Akademie der Künste in Berlin is placing these issues at the heart of a large, interdisciplinary exhibition entitled Return of Landscape (Wiederkehr der Landschaft), which opens on March 12 and will be accompanied by numerous events.

Among other topics, the exhibition aims to compare and contrast the world's two most artificial cities: Las Vegas and Venice. Even though their surrounding environment and histories could hardly be more different, both cities are struggling with similar ecological problems, including urban sprawl, air pollution, and water shortage.

Originally trained as an architect, MacLean's preoccupation with landscape is well-informed by an understanding of man's relation and dominion to his environment, and the consequences that such triumphs and hubris have wrought. Photographing from the skies for years, his images depict encroachment and impingement of industrial interests on natural spaces, as well as the the reach of suburban sprawl growing ever more greedy as it eclipses everything around it. The commission from the AdK for MacLean to document both changes and concerns in the cities of Venice and Las Vegas was a perfect pairing of instrument to operation. MacLean's photographs show us scenes strikingly different from our mind's eye recollection of la Serenissima, and what he shows us of Las Vegas contrasts starkly with popularized tourist images of the twinkling city in the desert. Instead of romance, we see a city sinking into the water, often surrounded by industrial machinery that makes it seem as if it is this that drags the Veneto to its watery grave; or instead of the twinkling glitz or surreal silliness that we may have experienced Las Vegas to be, we instead see a sickening sprawl of cookie-cut McMansions redefining what the edges of the American desert west are.

Venice, 2009 by Alex S. MacLean

If you are near Berlin or will be in the coming month, do yourself a favor and trek down to the Akademie der Künste to see MacLean's work in-person. A catalog of the show is also available for viewing from afar.

The Return of the Landscape
On view through May 30, 2010
Tuesday to Sunday 11am-8pm
€6 general / €4 student; free admission for those 18 and under
First Sunday of the month is also free

Hanseatenweg 10
Berlin, Germany
U Hansaplatz, S Bellevue, Bus 106