BEAUTY: Photography--Ben Sandler

Inspired by the television show "Mad Men" and films of the original period, Parisian photographer Ben Sandler rented legendary Finnsih architect and designer Alvar Aalto's historic Maison Carré (which was designed and created by Aalto for Frenchart dealer Louis Carreé), and shot a series of photos that reflects the period's fascination with the future. Titled "Tomorrowland," this is retro and the shape of things to come at once. The lighting fixtures are original to the building, which is now an Aalto museum.

http://cargocollective.com/bensandler

BEAUTY: Art--Sven Kroner

Much like Alex Roulette, Sven Kroner paints idyllic landscapes tainted by civilization but in Kroner's vision, we are looking back at the few little remnants of industrialized culture from the post-apocalyptic future. Highways are abandoned and now only used by wildlife, a lone office chair sits incongruously in a decimated snowy landscape or on a beach, and broken cars and washing machines sit in a swamp while the survivors of humanity live in tents on the shore. Another kind of dystopia...after the fall...

http://www.svenkroner.de/index.html

BEAUTY: Art--Josh Keyes

The mission statement on artist Josh Keyes' website sums up his work succinctly.

"Josh Keyes' style is reminiscent of the diagrammatic vocabulary found in scientific textbook illustrations that often express through a detached and clinical viewpoint an empirical representation of the natural world. Assembled into this virtual stage set are references to contemporary events along with images and themes from his personal mythology. Josh Keyes' work is a hybrid of eco-surrealism and dystopian folktales that express a concern for our time and the Earth's future."

In other words, these are cross-sectional images from the end of the world. Or rather, the end of the world as we know it. We are gone, the animals escape from the zoo, join those in the wild, and all take their rightful place.

Top to bottom: Drifting; Entangle 2; Sirens; Stampede; Tangled I; Tangled III; Tangled IV; Tangled V; The Exchange

http://www.joshkeyes.net/

For the last many months, I have been having a lot of anxiety, strong emotion, and fear of the future and Josh Keyes' work is a visual example of a possible--even probable--future. I am not being facetious when I say that I truly believe the future is going to be a cross between “Water World,” “Mad Max,” and a Margaret Atwood story. Look at every element around you in the world. Now follow it to its logical conclusion. And there you have it.