Faculty portfolios

The land is a repository of collective histories, retaining traces of social engagement, archeology, and anthropological record. Spatial geographies and shifting environmental conditions are a measure of human interaction with the land. What is it about photographing in these spaces that has compelled almost all of my creative work? How can my artistic practice that draws inspiration from issues of land, land use, and the human relationship to the environment, be relevant in this 21st century?

To work with landscape is to embrace and to challenge a long history that has come before. To work specifically with photography is to consciously choose a medium so ubiquitous that its imagery is often and paradoxically either overused or easily dismissed. Building upon the historic landscape photographs of the 19th century Westward Expansion, I make reference to the views that present an open sense of promise. However in contrast, I am interested in portraying a layered depiction—one that plays with perceptions of space and presents a complex relationship with our surroundings.

The act of walking with feet firmly on the ground, is a meditation on and within the landscape. I return to places over and over, as a way to witness the rhythms of change. Moving through this terrain is an immersive experience—one in which simultaneous beauty and damage reside, woven together as a complicated tapestry.