Umurangi Generation uses photography to capture a world falling into (very preventable) ruin, preserving the feeling of this moment through the pictures we take.
Apocalyptic events could have been stopped in this world, but instead, oblivion is coming for the people within it. It almost feels futile to take pictures of it, as you’re left to wonder who will even look at these things when you’re gone? That feeling doesn’t last, though, and soon gets replaced with a need to document it all. A sense that you want to salvage this world, even if the only thing you can save will be those moments you carve out of the world with your camera. Even if they only last as you hug your camera close while everything collapses, it feels like something you can save in a world beyond saving.
There are so many lovely sights to save along the way (which we looked into a bit earlier this year). There’s a beautiful world out there, one that makes the act of photography feel so much sadder, yet so important. There’s something about this world standing on the precipice that makes it shine brighter. It instills a need within you to grab it and hold on, trying to save the pieces you can with sheer will. Through your lens, you’ll save quiet moments with pals, tender connections, and a celebration of humanity and the love many of us feel for our fellow people. There’s a rage underneath it all at the people who failed us – those who let greed bring about our end – but it’s the love that stands out, to me.
Umurangi Generation is a wonderful photography simulator, but an even greater symbol of communities and caring for one another. About how we burn with our brightest and best elements, even in the end. It’s a powerful work of trying to save and savor what we can while we’re here, and that our efforts to preserve what we can still mean something even in Armageddon.
Umurangi Generation is available now on Steam.
About The Author
