[in progress]
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STATEMENT
Watching the World Around Us Stay Alive is a solutions-oriented, photographic meditation on sustaining life during the climate emergency. Using trees and rivers as anchor points for each city, the project examines the urbanscapes of New Orleans, LA; Washington, DC; and Detroit, MI.
With the rise of sea levels, an increase in flash rainstorms, unpredictable winds, and malnourished soil, cities face unprecedented destruction from flooding. Beloved places can instantaneously be damaged and destroyed. An initial solution might be to build better barriers to keep the water out. But what would it look like if we accepted the water? What if we use tools and solutions already present in the natural world to help us sustain life?
Polaroids of native and adaptive trees are prominently featured in this series as scientific studies consistently highlight the importance of urban canopies in creating resilient climate infrastructure. For example, a bald cypress tree can absorb up to 800 gallons of water a day, and the robust root structure of the loblolly pine tree makes the tree especially ideal for soil stabilization. Additionally, through biomimicry, we can learn valuable survival lessons from these trees. Oak trees, for example, create a strong, supportive network by interlocking their roots underground. This allowed the 500+ year old oak trees in New Orleans City Park to survive storms like Hurricanes Katrina and Ida. What kind of supportive network could we create if we metaphorically interlocked our roots?
Taking a nod from urban planners who argue that resilient design means living with water, the film is then soaked in water, collected from nearby rivers. These larger manipulated images are paired with quieter scenes of residents finding moments of rest, joy, and light along the edges of the river.
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STUDIO VISIT ZINES
I wanted to find a way (beyond social media) to share some research and the process of working on this long-term project, and ultimately decided to print an annual zine, detailing what you might see on the walls if you came by my studio (work, research, snapshots, memes, and songs, and more!).
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INSTALLATION
DC Arts Center (DCAC) – Washington, DC (2020)
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Washington Project for the Arts Collectors’ Night – Washington, DC (2025)
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DIALOGUE
2022 – Fragile Beauty: Film and Flood Resilience | DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities – Washington, DC
2020 – States of Being: Artist Talk | DC Arts Center (DCAC) – Washington, DC
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BOOKSHELF
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis (Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson); Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas (Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker); Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (adrienne maree brown); The Poetics of Space (Gaston Bachelard); The Overstory (Richard Powers); A Southern Gothic (Adia Victoria); Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw (Jeremy Sewall and Marion Lear Swaybill); Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City (Natalie Hopkinson); They Called Us River Rats: The Last Batture Settlement of New Orleans (Macon Fry)
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PRESS
~ The Washington Post (2022)
~ The Washington Post (2021)
~ The Washington Post (2017)
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COLLECTIONS
~ District of Columbia Art Bank, Washington, DC