This work was born out of the antagonistic declarations that bees were named the most important species and that many varieties are also on the endangered species list. I believe we all live attached and connected, affecting one another. If there were any ‘most important species’ it would be us, humans everywhere, for the resources that we use up or destroy, and for thinking we can survive as the only species. The concept of the Anthropocene guided much of the work. The realization that our impact is so great we are creating our own epoch. This project was created in the midst of the pandemic lockdown. During this world slowdown, I read reports of wildlife coming back to places they had disappeared for decades, or more. This resiliency of nature illustrates how we can still make a positive difference. Little choices make a big impact. I have used my work as a personal soul searching, looking at areas where I have fallen short, especially on my plastic consumption. Plastic everywhere, in the oceans and discarded into nature, left behind as our contributions. I envisioned the single-use plastic bottles as flowers, using the bottoms as photograms in these compositions.
These are all works of analog photography. I’m essentially tricking black and white darkroom paper into thinking it’s color. The prints are created using gelatin silver paper exposed to the sun for over an hour. This process is commonly called Lumen print. I am taking it a step further and archivally fixing the image, and at times toning with gold or selenium. Each piece is one of a kind. The paper has been sourced from vintage black and white paper, which if used traditionally with developer would be fogged, producing a low contrast black and grey image. I am reclaiming the paper, introducing intense amounts of light to change the nano-silver matrix. The act of seeing is very important in this project. There is the metaphorical re-envisioning of our landscape. There is also a physical change to the way light reflects back to us from this paper, creating structural color and light-wave interference. The colors seen are analogous to how we see color in a butterfly’s wing or an oil slick.