OBSERVING THE FLOW

ARTIST STATEMENT: I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent sitting in a chair in the Marsh on my property in upstate, NY. Nowadays, the stream meanders through deep thickets of cattail and an abundance of native wildflowers, but I remember when this place was a 35 acre beaver pond. And I remember when the dam broke and the area I currently sit was first drained and exposed. Year after year I’ve watched the plants grow in, the space take new shape; become home to the bountiful wildlife that currently calls this place home. Myself included. This place has changed so many times over these years, through the seasons, on a weekly basis, and directly due to beaver activity and weather. The water is up, the water is down. Everything is flooded. Everything is dry. Sometimes it sounds like a trickle and other times that babbling brook is yelling. When water is high, you see the reflections of the reeds wiggle back and forth in the rushing of the water while the birds and frogs chirp all around you. On other days it looks like a still mirror. By floating a pinhole camera in the changing waters of this important ecosystem I am able to let the flow of the stream draw lines with the sun onto photographic film. Each morning, I wake up and lay a camera on the surface of the water to study her movements with silver and light. On low water days when the stream gets trapped between rocks the camera might stay still for long periods of time, disturbed by a dragonfly dipping into the pool or slightly gyrated by a gentle breeze. On other days the rippling waves rattle the camera in every direction. In the evening, I remove the camera and study the lines of the sun. The unique markings on paper are a daily journal of this sacred space - over time they become an autobiography, of which I am the ghostwriter with my camera.

Ben Goldfarb writes in Eager, “Many beaver-formed wetlands are inherently liminal, transitioning ceaselessly from one state to the next; a beaver complex is one of the few opportunities we mortals have to watch geological processes unfold within the duration of a single human lifespan”. It is the honor of my life to be witness to this ever-changing landscape, to learn from it, and to steward it to remain a wild place. Wetlands make up 6% of the Earths surface, they sustain more life than almost any other ecosystem, and are an effective aid from climate change if we allow them to just be.

PROCESS: Pinhole photographs made in handmade pinhole cameras floating on the water surface for long exposure times

MATERIALS: Silver Gelatin Paper

DIMENSIONS: 10”x10”

CREATION DATE: 2023, 2025, Ongoing.