The World is Astonishing with You in it: A 21st Century Field Guide to the Birds, Ferns and Wildflowers, 2019 - present

These lumen collages from the larger work, "Lumen Notebook," are cameraless sun-prints made with a wide variety of black & white photo papers. A closer looks shows these shapes each abstractly depict specific wildlife (eggs, beaks, birds, shoots, ferns, petals, flora).

A part of the larger body of work, “Lumen Notebook,” this work employs three field guides – field guides to North American birds, ferns, and wildflowers that belonged to my late mother. I mark/expose the photographic paper, making one mark per quadrant or half, with an edge of the respective book. Every paper type and brand turns a different latent color - what I think of as the paper’s own “color alphabet.” I have experimented with at least 100 different papers, both current and expired. Each photograph references an endangered or disappearing species (bird, fern, wildflower).

I have been making the work in nature, at different residencies, and my family's Canadian cabin, where the birds and ferns and wildflowers abound.

Images and papers:

  1. Henslow’s Sparrow, Ilford warmtone RC

  2. Tall Bugbane II, Illford MG4 RC deluxe

  3. Hart’s Tongue, Kodak Ployfiber FD

  4. Sprague’s Pipit II, Ilford Fine Art 300

  5. Sage Thrasher, Ilford MG5 deluxe RC

  6. Scarlet Ammania, Illford RC warmtone

  7. Spalding’s Campion, Ilford MG4 FB

  8. Whooping Crane, Adorama FB

  9. Golden Leather Ferns, Oriental FB

  10. Purple Coneflower, Kodak Supra Endura RC

  11. Bear’s Foot Sanicle, Flexicon VC

  12. Coastal Wood Fern, Ilford Classic RC

  13. Mountain Plover, Multitone Gloss RC

  14. Mountain Holly Fern, Oriental FB