You only have to watch a TV documentary about the natural world to realise how we much love to see all those beautiful nature images. Films about nature have elevating music, there is that special way of narrating, and those incredible scenes developing in front of our eyes. But…can we connect with the natural world by ideolising it? Do we really see nature as it is?

It’s a rainy Sunday. We sit back and relax on the couch, ready to watch a beautiful nature documentary about the natural world. Soon the narrator, cameraperson, director and the producer, all take us by the hand to explore that otherworldly, natural world. All those incredible nature images exactly in the way we love so much. We go through a series of extreme close-ups, intense slow motion and magical soundtracks.

The natural world with all of our senses

So much spectacular beautiful nature should be experienced on a huge screen with surround sound. Engaging all of our senses. We should sit back with a snack, and let stunning images and music take us to unimaginable heights. Why shouldn’t we? The natural world is awe-inspiring and we should watch in a way that matches that. In a big, epic way.

Nature images and hero-worshipping

But (you heard it coming), when we see the natural world through beautiful stylised images, when we romanticise it, do we create a ‘them and us’ situation? Also between people that ‘understand’ the natural world and those that do not? Who knows, in doing so, we make all that beautiful nature something unreal. Something we can’t really see.

You can even say that by being so fascinated by nature images that we don’t notice certain things. For example, why so many films about wildlife focus on animals killing other animals. And how this can be giving us a distorted view of the natural world. Do we stop to think that some images are too beautiful and perfect to have been captured in the wild? That some were created in staged situations, with captive animals, or as the result of editing? Do we remind ourselves that the film we watch is a story, a mere perspective of the filmmakers? And that this often colours how we see nature? Do we wonder how concerned the filmmakers were when they did not to intervene when animals were being killed?

Magic and down to earth?

Instead we have the option to wonder what would happen if we changed our perspective on nature images and documentaries. For example, by seeing the natural world as something beautiful, but without all the bells and whistles. Without admiring it from a distance. To see nature as something magical and complicated, but also as down-to-earth and simple. After all, we can ask ourselves the question: aren’t we ‘nature’ ourselves?

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