Shay VanBreda Cooling is a British photographer, born 2005, whose practice acknowledges human intervention through contaminated material. She is based in London and the South Coast. Working predominantly with black-and-white 6x7 film, she explores the natural sublime, the technological sublime and its coexistence in the contemporary era.

Her current body of work offers an introspective exploration of humans' relationship with nature. Similar to the natural sublime, the sentiments of terror do not come from the landscape itself but rather the consequences embedded within their altered states; there is an acknowledgement in the threat humans pose, the subsequent instability caused, and the unnerving recognition of the viewer's own role towards destruction.

She questions the ability for these landscapes to conduct a sense of sublime; not as a coherent landscape, but as an environment shaped through fragmentation and perpetual alteration, one that forces the audience to acknowledge the coexistence of awe of the environment and consequential instability of human intervention. In which, the absence of environmental accounting protocols and surge of the technological advancements especially in relation to AI, not only impedes standardised regulation, but also perpetuates communities misinterpretations of advanced technologies as inherently “dematerialised” and "environmentally clean”.

Infrastructure of AI data centres represents industrialised territorialisation and confronts the limited accountabilities held against corporations; it reinforces political and environmental instability, where these industries prioritise economic profit over communities detrimentally impacted. In this manner, it is an acknowledgement of humans against nature and the consequences embedded within the contaminated landscapes.

VanBreda has received a BA (Hons) Photography Degree from The Arts University Bournemouth in 2026. In collaboration with the institution, their photographic work is soon to be exhibited in CopeLands Gallery (London, June 2026).