Before the blazing hot waves of 2024 summertime come in knocking on our doors, I'd love to take one last look back over the cold winter months and reminisce about the beauty of a deeply sleeping nature.
Today's editorial will focus on a Finland artist Popsto, a Nature timelapse photographer from the frozen lands of Lapland, whose goal is to try and make you slow down. And he's damn good at it.
Technical skills aside, Popsto's talent very clearly resides in his ability to capture the essence of an exhale. His photos bring the sensation of the deep calm state that your body returns to when you focus on breathing out.
It might be the theme of Nature, the colours or the absence of people in his art (or combination of all those), but whatever it is, it awakens the primal instinct in me to return to the woods and live as a hermit. Too bad I'd die on the second day.
You would be surprised by how many colours you'd find in a land of snow and ice if you looked hard enough. Popsto's photos reveal the beauties of the northern lands, enchanted by the fleeting colours of the heavens above. There are hardly just whites and blues.
The time-lapse character of his works naturally invite the viewer into observing beautiful natural phenomena in a condensed span of a few seconds.
Because of that, this format lays out an interesting contrast-play between the deep, immutable essence of the Mother Nature and her fleeting nowness. Simply said, it's all ancient yet so short.
If you spend just a few minutes on his Foundation page, you will easily notice an out-of-this-world vibe reaching across his artworks. It ties the photos together, subtly suggesting that none of it happens in our world.
And, of course, it does not. It is a whole another world. A world unfazed by our grand civilization, technology developments or politics. We – people – tend to think that the world we built for ourselves is the absolute pinnacle of creation. Yet standing in front of such untampered majesty of the Nature itself we slow down. As Popsto's work of art elegantly proves.
I'd like to mention that while I feel that Popsto has a great advantage in his environment, what he really offers us is the key to appreciate our own surroundings. The world is full of colours and complexity regardless of where you are. And if he is able to find depth in a land of snow, so are you wherever else in the world.
Lately Popsto has dived into the world of AI animation, which very cleverly follows the steps of his original landscape timelapses.
In his AI pieces we can see a unique approach to his standard themes of the Scandinavian ice lands spiced up with an interesting touch of his nation's culture. I am specifically caught by interesting animations of subzero bathing in ice lakes or famous finish saunas that I am yet to visit.
I probably don't have to mention that the technical execution of these is at the same level of quality as his timelapses.
I personally am very grateful for having linked with Popsto two years ago. He is an incredibly outgoing and friendly human being that I've been talking to often.
His self-proclaimed purpose of trying to make you slow down is a successful one, at least for me. The natural beauty he shows in his artworks invites you to escape the common sight of an average Joe and really appreciate anything you might find out there.
The wilderness is everywhere around us, we just have to see it.
I highly recommend following up the links below. Popsto's works are animated time-lapses and the still pictures in this email cannot do them enough justice.
Links
Price ranges: 1/1s mostly in the 1-2 eth price range
Chains: Ethereum
Links:
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/popsto
Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/popst0
Foundation: https://foundation.app/@popsto
Special editions: https://opensea.io/collection/special-editions-popsto
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/popsto
