Throughout May I’ve been lucky enough to of been commissioned to shoot the opening of various art galleries across the capital. One of my favourites being Luke Jerram’s awe-inspiring art installation Gaia, returning to the Old Royal Naval College this summer. Gaia is returning for a full month in pride of place in the magnificent Painted Hall. This monumental internally-lit sculpture, measuring seven metres in diameter, was created using 120dpi NASA imagery and is an exact scale replica of our planet.
UK artist Jerram aims to instill a sense of the ‘Overview Effect’ that astronauts experience when looking down at Earth from space: feelings of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the outdoors and nature becoming a haven for so many, Gaia acts as a mirror to society to provide the viewer with a new perspective of our precious planet.
My shot was taken with the Hall and Installation mirrored in a glass tabletop. Accompanied by two of the gallery assistants stood in the shot to help give a sense of scale. Shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mrk IV camera on a tripod using a small aperture.
Gaia is 1.8 million times smaller than Earth, with each centimetre of the sculpture representing 18km of the Earth’s surface. By standing 211 metres away from the slowly rotating artwork, viewers can see the Earth as it appears from the moon. The sculpture provides an amazing opportunity for visitors to the Painted Hall to view Earth as it appears from space, floating in three dimensions like a ‘blue marble’.
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