Alone in the Universe Photograph - Limited Edition of 10

I am a photographer known mostly for creating life-size portraits of whales. My more recent work is a study of the sun. I explore the sun’s surface in vivid detail, as viewed through Earth’s varied atmospheric states. Dramatic landscape elements anchor the experience to challenge our perceptions of reality and our place within an infinite void. The process is complex and often requires the use of three telescopes equipped with infrared cameras and a monochrome video camera with scientific filters. This equipment is often backpacked in the Sierras to capture Sun/Earth interactions that occur only a few moments each year. I study the fall of the sun’s photons on Earth, noting how they concentrate at the solar surface, then incrementally disperse away from the solar disk. I am keen to explore photon interactions on Earth with subjects in close proximity to the sun’s light. After my father’s death in 2015 and a near death experience of my own a few months later, I made the decision to find a way to create daily. It began with the sun. This new direction unexpectedly led to unfamiliar sensations of presence as if the cosmos was experiencing itself through my form. The work featured here is from my most recent book entitled “sun, water, being” published by the Datz Museum of Art, 2021.