Modern-Day Nature Lovers
(Living Outside the System)
More challenging than ever before, is the choice to live in nature nowadays: to choose the wilderness over the system, nature instead of technology and freedom instead of society’s social conventions. This choice of life intrigues me a lot because if we have so much nowadays, why should we choose to have almost nothing? But then again, what is having so much? What is having almost nothing? Everything is questioned. Most of all, it intrigues me how the modern-day nature lovers are able to prefer one world over the other.
These people are living the life which Emerson and Thoreau wrote about – to become one with nature. Probably they don’t even need any specific spiritual reason but maybe they decided that they don’t want to be part of the system. They might not have many material possessions or a daily job like we have, but they are free in ways we are not.
A community known as the Rainbow Gathering was photographed by the photographer Benoite Paillé.
Rainbow Gatherings are temporary communities, held annually all around the world. The first Rainbow Gathering happened in 1972, a four-day event in Colorado in the United States. It has been believed that at least 2,600 people from throughout that region attended and provided support for the 1972 Rainbow Gathering. Since that date onwards, gatherings are held till today expanding the original four-day span in number as in frequency.
They support and practice ideals of peace, love, non-violence, environmentalism, respect, harmony, non-consumerism, non-commercialism, volunteerism, multicultural diversity, freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to “Babylon" - mainstream popular culture, consumerism, capitalism, and mass media. The majority of the members believe that modern lifestyles and systems of government are unhealthy, unsustainable, and exploitative and out of harmony with Nature.
Among the Rainbow Family there are no leaders, hierarchy, official documents and no membership. The values held are love, peace, non-violence, environmentalism, non-consumerism and non-commercialism, volunteerism, respect for others, consensus process, and multicultural diversity.
However, these gatherings and communities have their problems. Relations with the police or local communities are frequently a problem, plus the media often portrays them unfavorably focusing in depecting drug use, nudity, beliefs,etc.
Another photographer, Eric Valli, also took photographs of people who have chosen to leave technology behind and live in Nature. Eric Valli spent some years around different groups of people who live in the wilderness and has recently published a book called “Rencontres hors du temps”, where we can read about his experience in more detail. Although some of the groups have some kind of contact with technology, it is not comparable to the amount of contact we have with it every day.
I have selected some of my favourite pictures that were taken by these two photographers:
Note: For a more complete and better view of their collection of photos, you can consult these links:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/1193675/Rainbow-Gathering-(2010-2011); https://www.flickr.com/photos/benoitpaille/sets/72157624733821565/
http://www.visualnews.com/2012/04/11/off-the-grid-people-who-have-left-technology-behind/
http://www.ericvalli.org/
These people are living the life which Emerson and Thoreau wrote about – to become one with nature. Probably they don’t even need any specific spiritual reason but maybe they decided that they don’t want to be part of the system. They might not have many material possessions or a daily job like we have, but they are free in ways we are not.
A community known as the Rainbow Gathering was photographed by the photographer Benoite Paillé.
Rainbow Gatherings are temporary communities, held annually all around the world. The first Rainbow Gathering happened in 1972, a four-day event in Colorado in the United States. It has been believed that at least 2,600 people from throughout that region attended and provided support for the 1972 Rainbow Gathering. Since that date onwards, gatherings are held till today expanding the original four-day span in number as in frequency.
They support and practice ideals of peace, love, non-violence, environmentalism, respect, harmony, non-consumerism, non-commercialism, volunteerism, multicultural diversity, freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to “Babylon" - mainstream popular culture, consumerism, capitalism, and mass media. The majority of the members believe that modern lifestyles and systems of government are unhealthy, unsustainable, and exploitative and out of harmony with Nature.
Among the Rainbow Family there are no leaders, hierarchy, official documents and no membership. The values held are love, peace, non-violence, environmentalism, non-consumerism and non-commercialism, volunteerism, respect for others, consensus process, and multicultural diversity.
However, these gatherings and communities have their problems. Relations with the police or local communities are frequently a problem, plus the media often portrays them unfavorably focusing in depecting drug use, nudity, beliefs,etc.
Another photographer, Eric Valli, also took photographs of people who have chosen to leave technology behind and live in Nature. Eric Valli spent some years around different groups of people who live in the wilderness and has recently published a book called “Rencontres hors du temps”, where we can read about his experience in more detail. Although some of the groups have some kind of contact with technology, it is not comparable to the amount of contact we have with it every day.
I have selected some of my favourite pictures that were taken by these two photographers:
Benoite Paillé - "Rainbow Gathering"
Eric Valli - "Off the Grid"
Note: For a more complete and better view of their collection of photos, you can consult these links:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/1193675/Rainbow-Gathering-(2010-2011); https://www.flickr.com/photos/benoitpaille/sets/72157624733821565/
http://www.visualnews.com/2012/04/11/off-the-grid-people-who-have-left-technology-behind/
http://www.ericvalli.org/
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