June 20, 2022Comments are off for this post.

Travelers

Dark sounds fill the void
A strong back breaks the waves
Travelers of the deep

But do humans never succeed in saving a species from extinction?
Of course they do, and the humpback whale is a good example.

The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. Adults range in length from 14–17 m (46–56 ft) and weigh up to 40 metric tons (44 short tons). The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is known for breaching and other distinctive surface behaviors, making it popular with whale watchers. Males produce a complex song typically lasting 4 to 33 minutes.

Humpback whales typically migrate up to 16,000 km (9,900 mi) each year and are found in oceans and seas around the world. They feed in polar waters and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth. Their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish. Unique among large whales, humpbacks use bubbles to catch prey. 

The humpback was a target for the whaling industry, like all other large whales. Humans once hunted the species to the brink of extinction; its population fell to around 5,000 by the 1960s. While numbers have partially recovered to some 135,000 animals worldwide, entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, and noise pollution continue to affect the species.

Food chain

Whales are at the top of the food chain and have an important role in the overall health of the marine environment. They absorb carbon throughout their long lives. When they die, the sequestered carbon goes with them to the ocean floor, literally a carbon sink!. It is estimated that a humpback whale sequesters about 30 tons of CO2 on average, taking that carbon out of the atmosphere for centuries.

Whales are some of the ocean's most fruitful gardeners. When whales poop, they drop a load of crucial nutrients into the 'topsoil' of the ocean. Their poop fertilizes the surface of the ocean with nutrients that are fundamental to the health of ocean ecosystems, the global nutrient cycle, and the carbon cycle.

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Travelers - Dark sounds fill the void ~ A strong back breaks the waves ~ Travelers of the deep - Surrealistic digital photo art, part of the collection Drowned Earth by Jacob Berghoef
Travelers

'Travelers' is the seventh and last new artwork in my collection ‘Drowned Earth’. 
In this collection of new artworks, I show how I see the earth from, let's say, a few centuries from now. An amalgamation of the forests and the oceans. With hopefully in the distant future a rich ecosystem that has managed to adapt to the new conditions.

General info on this artwork

This is a digital artwork, printed with high-quality ink on museum-quality cotton paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 308gsm). The work comes in a limited edition of 10, signed and with a certificate of authenticity.

For these artworks, I start with one or more photographs made by myself. I edit it in multiple process runs and in several layers by color manipulation and adding and editing multiple digital photographic effects. I do that until a surrealistic atmosphere is created that touches me and tells the story I want to tell.

The photograph(s) I begin with has/have an impressionistic, surrealistic or abstract realist style, which is the basis for all my work.

Prints are available, ask for a quote or contact me through a message. Prints are also available in my Saatchi Art portfolio at the artwork page and here.

June 19, 2022Comments are off for this post.

Drowned Earth: Blooming Forest

Bright sunlight dances 
Coral reefs breathe new colors
Old forests in bloom

Would coral reefs stand a chance in the future, protected by drowned temperate rain forests in warmed waters in now too cold areas?

Is it an odd assumption that climate change does not destroy nature, but radically changes the conditions to which nature is slowly adapting? 

Coral reefs are an important ecosystem for underwater life, protect coastal areas by reducing the force of waves striking the shore, are the source of nitrogen and other essential nutrients for marine food chains, and assist in carbon and nitrogen fixation. 

Threats

Coral reefs are threatened by increased ocean temperatures and changing ocean chemistry. These threats are caused by warmer atmospheric temperatures and increasing levels of carbon dioxide in seawater. Besides that, pollution, overfishing, destructive fishing practices using dynamite or cyanide, collecting live corals for the aquarium market and mining coral for building materials are some of the many ways that humanity damage reefs all around the world every day.

More and more climate scientists agree that the average global temperature increase will be towards 3 degrees Celsius. One and a half degrees is no longer feasible, especially with all those new plans for oil and gas extraction with 'energy independence' as a lame excuse. Where we should drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels, an increase is to be expected in the next 5-10 years.

Many people seem to think that natural laws do not apply to them and their cleverness will solve all the problems. And so the still-increasing bill of our greed and stubbornness is passed on further and further to future generations.

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Blooming Forest - Bright sunlight dances ~ Coral reefs breathe new colors ~ Old forests in bloom - Surrealistic digital photo art, part of the collection Drowned Earth by Jacob Berghoef
Blooming Forest

General info on this artwork

This is a digital artwork, printed with high-quality ink on museum-quality cotton paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 308gsm). The work comes in a limited edition of 10, signed and with a certificate of authenticity.

For these artworks, I start with one or more photographs made by myself. I edit it in multiple process runs and in several layers by color manipulation and adding and editing multiple digital photographic effects. I do that until a surrealistic atmosphere is created that touches me and tells the story I want to tell.

The photograph(s) I begin with has/have an impressionistic, surrealistic or abstract realist style, which is the basis for all my work.

Prints are available, ask for a quote or contact me through a message. Prints are also available in my Saatchi Art portfolio at the artwork page and here.

June 17, 2022Comments are off for this post.

Drowned Earth: The Other World

You ask me why I live
alone in the mangrove forest,
at the edge of the infinite sea.
I smile, I am silent
until even my soul grows quiet:
it lives in the other world, 
one that no one owns.
The trees bloom. 
The waves keep coming.

Inspired by the poem ‘I Make My Home in the Mountains’ 
Li Po (701-762 )

Mangroves, just as seagrass beds and coral reefs, keep coastal zones healthy. Mangroves provide essential habitat for thousands of species. They also stabilize shorelines, preventing erosion and protecting the land — and the people who live there — from waves and storms.

There are many threats to mangrove forests: sea level rise, tourism, land reclamation for agriculture, shrimp farms, pollution from fertilizers from agricultural areas and waste from cities, logging... just to name a few. 

The consequences are enormous. Not only because, like all trees, they hold a lot of CO2 both in their biomass and in the soil of the forests, which is released when the forests are destroyed, but also because they house very fragile ecosystems that are lost when the trees disappear.

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The Other World - You ask me why I live alone in the mangrove forest, at the edge of the infinite sea. - Surrealistic digital photo art, part of the collection Drowned Earth by Jacob Berghoef
The Other World

General info on this artwork

This is a digital artwork, printed with high-quality ink on museum-quality cotton paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 308gsm). The work comes in a limited edition of 10, signed and with a certificate of authenticity.

For these artworks, I start with one or more photographs made by myself. I edit it in multiple process runs and in several layers by color manipulation and adding and editing multiple digital photographic effects. I do that until a surrealistic atmosphere is created that touches me and tells the story I want to tell.

The photograph(s) I begin with has/have an impressionistic, surrealistic or abstract realist style, which is the basis for all my work.

Prints are available, ask for a quote or contact me through a message. Prints are also available in my Saatchi Art portfolio at the artwork page and here.

June 15, 2022Comments are off for this post.

Drowned Earth: Bloom

Pulsating blue
float gently between the trees
forest in bloom

I show how I see the earth from, let's say, a few centuries from now. An amalgamation of the forests and the oceans. With hopefully in the distant future a rich ecosystem that has managed to adapt to the new conditions.

Will there still be room for humans in that world?

Yes, I think so. Will there also be room for the "civilized" Western man? No, absolutely not, unless they learn to be one with nature again. It will take several generations for that to happen. I sincerely wonder if the generations of Western man now living on earth will be able to bring about this transformation. It will take more time for that, I fear....

The title of the third artwork in this new collection is 'Bloom'.

When huge numbers of jellyfish, or any plant or animal, appear suddenly, it is called a ‘bloom’. Jellyfish in a bloom can number in the millions.

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Bloom - Pulsating blue float gently between branches forest in bloom - Surrealistic digital photo art, part of the collection Drowned Earth by Jacob Berghoef
Bloom

General info on this artwork

This is a digital artwork, printed with high-quality ink on museum-quality cotton paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 308gsm). The work comes in a limited edition of 10, signed and with a certificate of authenticity.

For these artworks, I start with one or more photographs made by myself. I edit it in multiple process runs and in several layers by color manipulation and adding and editing multiple digital photographic effects. I do that until a surrealistic atmosphere is created that touches me and tells the story I want to tell.

The photograph(s) I begin with has/have an impressionistic, surrealistic or abstract realist style, which is the basis for all my work.

Prints are available, ask for a quote or contact me through a message. Prints are also available in my Saatchi Art portfolio at the artwork page and here.

June 13, 2022Comments are off for this post.

Drowned Earth: Swimming In Tears

While trees cry
fish shed their tears
in endless waves

When I imagine what the earth will look like in 100 years, the image that comes to mind most emphatically is one of an earth with sharply rising sea levels. The vastly reduced life that remains in the warmed and poisoned oceans will find shelter and food in the flooded mangrove forests and tropical and temperate coastal forests.

Nature will adapt to the new conditions over time, there is no doubt. Nature has always done that since the creation of the earth. Whether humanity, and many other species as we know them today, have been given the time to do the same is very much open to question.

I show you how I see the earth of, say, a few centuries from now in this collection of new artworks. A fusion of the forests and the oceans. And hopefully in the distant future a rich ecosystem that has managed to adapt to the new circumstances.

Will there still be room for humans in that world?

Yes, I think there will be. Will there also be room for "civilized" Western man? No, unless they learn to be one with nature again. It will take several generations before that happens. I sincerely wonder whether the generations of Western man who are now living on earth will be able to bring about this transformation. More time is needed for that, I fear....

The title of the first artwork in this new collection is 'Swimming In tears'.

Swimming In Tears - While trees cry . Fish drop their tears . Drowning earth - Surrealistic digital art, part of the collection Drowned Earth by Jacob Berghoef
Swimming in Tears

General info on this artwork

This is a digital artwork, printed with high-quality ink on museum-quality cotton paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 308gsm). The work comes in a limited edition of 10, signed and with a certificate of authenticity.

For these artworks, I start with one or more photographs made by myself. I edit it in multiple process runs and in several layers by color manipulation and adding and editing multiple digital photographic effects. I do that until a surrealistic atmosphere is created that touches me and tells the story I want to tell.

The photograph(s) I begin with has/have an impressionistic, abstract or abstract realist style, which is the basis for all my work.

Prints are available, ask for a quote or contact me through a message. Prints are also available in my Saatchi Art portfolio at the artwork page.

Through my artworks I ask you to reflect for a moment on the nature around you, on the beautiful feeling that nature can evoke, on what we lose when we continue on the destructive path of ever more…

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