Maidenhair Fern on Gray Print

I make photos and create montages that capture beauty and evoke emotion, both of the natural world and of human-made structures and objects. At age 12, my dad gave me a vintage Argus C3 rangefinder camera. Around the same time I became interested in astronomy and saved my babysitting money to buy a used Celestron 6” Newtonian reflector telescope. My dad built me a little observatory on our back hill and darkroom space in the basement. I saved more money and filled it with used darkroom equipment, developing gelatin silver prints from my 35mm film. By night I was regularly gazing through time and space, acutely aware of the vastness of the universe and Earth’s insignificance within that space. But by day I was out with my camera marveling at nature and capturing the beauty of our little miracle planet. Today my childhood passions merge when I use my images of the night sky as a backdrop to elicit contemplation of our place in the universe. I still feel our planet is precious and continue to capture the beauty of it, but I cannot ignore the impact humans have on it due to population growth as well as political and economic factors. While do I capture the results of that impact, I also see beauty in our structures and objects.