statement :: Fieldwork

I have always been interested in ways we shape, use, and experience the land, and these photographs depict ordinary mysteries and peculiar sculptural arrangements found by chance. Fieldwork refers to the observation and gathering of raw data, and also suggests rough fortifications built from materials at hand, like brush and rocks. From an ancient stone circle in England to dried Minnesota grass after snowmelt, these silent pictures isolate the viewer in the landscape. Shot in the liminal seasons of late fall and early spring when everything hangs between life, death, and life again, the bones of life are laid bare, color is reduced, and branches exposed. I use the serendipity of a walk to find meaning in the quietest seasons, when evidence of life is the hardest to find yet it persists, and is all the more hopeful in its tenacity. Above all, these pictures are about the beauty of mystery and the mystery of beauty. Fieldwork grew out of a childhood fascination with a Led Zeppelin album cover, and was influenced by the work of P. H. Emerson and other rural photographic pioneers. Since I am removed from their subjects in time and space, I am left to imply my own mythos around the labors those early photographs depict. There are no people in my photographs, only traces and suggestions of their influence. An eerie sense of melancholy lingers, and Fieldwork challenges our notions of beauty while questioning the value we place on ecology.