Leonardo Ponis: 500 Millon

The Argentine photographer Leonardo Ponis explores the landscape of the Sierra Chica de Zonda, redefined by human intervention after being wild and untouched for more than 500 million years.

In less than a century, man has radically modified the landscape of the Sierra Chica de Zonda – an area located in south central province of San Juan, Argentina that, with its paleozoic origin, belongs to the western foothills of the Andes – and its surroundings.

An environment that appeared to the human experience as eternal and immutable, only altered by the slow but persistent erosion, has been transformed into an impermanent, fleeting and fragile scene. Leonardo Ponis’ project seeks to explore these spaces surrounding the Sierra that gradually and often chaotically are rebuilt and redefined by human intervention, setting a new landscape and inevitably leaving behind another one, which remained wild and untouched for 500 million years.

Leonardo Ponis, 500 Millon

Leonardo Ponis, 500 Millon

Leonardo Ponis, 500 Millon

Leonardo Ponis, 500 Millon

Leonardo Ponis, 500 Millon

Leonardo Ponis, 500 Millon

Leonardo Ponis, 500 Millon

Leonardo Ponis, 500 Millon

Leonardo Ponis, 500 Millon

Leonardo Ponis, 500 Millon

Leonardo Ponis, 500 Millon

Leonardo Ponis was born in San Juan, Argentina, in 1977. His works portrays the human control and power over the natural land. The evidence of a human presence in the altered landscapes, and how the wilderness has been slowly occupied. He has two self-published books: Domesticated (2011) and 500 Million (2013). Actually he is working on project about the routes of his province and their surroundings.

Leonardo Ponis: 500 Millon

The Argentine photographer Leonardo Ponis explores the landscape of the Sierra Chica de Zonda, redefined by human intervention after being wild and untouched for more than 500 million years.

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