Be in the Wildlife > Filtering the Landscape

The Other Primary Sun

Spines

The Sun Won't Give Up the Sky

Flight and the Relative Absence of Light

Be in the Wildlife: Filtering the Landscape

This series was photographed while immersed in the landscape as an artist-in-residence at Joshua Tree National Park. After printing the black and white photographs in the darkroom , I combine them with out-of-circulation photographic filters, preserving the filters as I found them. Once tools of the analog darkroom, the filters become part of the image itself, drawing attention to the omnipresent desert sun while heightening relationships among color, geology, and plant life.

The at-risk Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) appears throughout the series, at times seeming to shapeshift before the viewer. The western Joshua tree is now protected in California under the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, enacted in 2023 amid concerns about the species’ long-term survival as its habitat changes. The colors of the filters against the monochromatic photographs evoke both the memory and sensation of the desert landscape, while reflecting my response to the effects of climate change on this fragile ecosystem.

*Summer 2023 Update: Joshua trees receive long term protection via The Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act.