Bradley O'Connell says, "Human Traces is a fine art landscape project capturing a wide variety of human-made objects, found in the high-desert in and around Reno, NV. Artificial lighting, most often studio monolights, illuminate these literal subjects juxtaposed against portions of the environment, including the immediately surrounding natural environment and the natural and human-made settings in the distance.

The Project is principally expressive, with aesthetic considerations a foremost element for emotional impact. The prints have an image size of 20" x30" (26" x36" framed and matted) and originate from a 50 MP DSLR outfitted with 24-50mm tilt-shift lenses.

Human Traces presents an opportunity to explore new working methods combined with the more traditional aspects of landscape photography. The series captures the discarded, sometimes unappealing and sometimes beautiful "human traces" in terrain that is equally unappealing and beautiful. These areas, just outside of the regular travels, dwellings, and sightlines of human habitation, are presented here to admire, admonish, question, and contemplate the cultural underpinnings in contemporary America found in these man-altered landscapes."

Bradley O’Connell took an interest in artistic pursuits as a toddler when he would replicate the world around him in pencil drawings. While taking an interest in photography in the mid-80s with his first SLR camera, a Canon T70, when he was in elementary school, his artistic focus stayed with pencil drawings through high school. It would take many years, until 2006 with a Canon 30D, for him to return to photography. However, this time, the camera and lens was the pencil, and the paper was a digital sensor. This second foray with a camera began on a small island along the East coast of the U.S., a place called Manhattan.

The last day of August 2011, the exotic island left behind for the high deserts perched below the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Nevada’s Northwest corner; the city of Reno. Finally feeling at home in more suitable geological and geographic confines, landscape photography was lastly in easy reach. After several years of exploring nature and the landscape with camera and lens, a desire for a formal education led him to a structured MFA Photography Program at Academy of Art University. The formal education and training in an academic setting broadened knowledge and avenues for creativity; leading to the project, Human Traces. This project combines traditional landscape photography with studio-level lighting equipment and is an ongoing Thesis and personal project. Other types of photography occupy his creative outlets and areas of continuing interest, such as commercial-based work in studio settings, professional real estate and architecture photography, product photography, and portraiture work.

www.zoneVphotography.com

Carol Griffith says, "My artmaking is influenced by my active interests in politics, the environment and social equity. These interests have led me to expand my practice from strictly painting and drawing into a number of other media, including photography, printmaking and sculpture.

My latest work is my Bad Science series, born out of my dismay at the casual interchangeability of peer tested scientific theory with agenda-driven hypotheses/ or outright fallacies in so many popular discussions and outlets. The use of children's toys suggests how, with our current presentation of science, children might play out the jumbled messages that they pick up about "science".

Recently, some of the original characters in the Bad Science series are developing storylines of their own- like Jane, who appears in these photos as the environmentalist inspired to take problems into her own hands. She tries to create solutions on an individual scale. Her science and technology may be flawed but her heart is in the right place. As in all these works, I feel like I am just along for the ride, waiting to see where my cast will go next.
 
I am originally from Clarion, PA. I received her MFA in painting from Ohio University in Athens Ohio and my BFA in painting from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. I currently reside near Columbus, OH with my husband, and until recently, my daughter who is now a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova.
 
I am a Professor of Fine Arts at the Columbus College of Art and Design since 1986, where I have taught drawing, painting, watercolor and theory. I am a former Chair of Painting. My paintings, in both oil and watercolor, have been exhibited nationally in such galleries as Artemisia in Chicago, IL, The Pittsburgh Plan for Art and the Universities of Nebraska-Lincoln and Alabama, Clarion University of PA and Mount Vernon University, as well as a number of private and nonprofit galleries. My works have been seen in numerous juried and invitational shows.
 
I am a recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artists Fellowship and a Glass Axis Media Project Grant. My paintings have been recognized with awards from Butler Midyear Exhibitions, Ohio State Fair Juried Exhibitions (including Best of Show), Ohio Watercolor Society, and the Huntington 280. My works are included in a number of collections, both corporate and private and I had the honor of being awarded a Jentel Residency in Banner Wyoming.
 
ccad.digication.com/carolgriffith
 

Christopher Gauthier says, "Avarice acknowledges the darker, destructive pull of power, and greed; luring the viewer with a formal aesthetic that coats corruption in the sickly sweet trappings of beauty. It tells the human story of a consuming desire to possess, use up and obliterate without regard to consequence, and without accountability to future generations. Avarice  anthropomorphizes catastrophic environmental situations through size and scale. Like ants, the monolithic machines chew the earth, rearrange and invert mountains, poison land and water, and spew toxic fumes into the sky."

Christopher M. Gauthiér teaches art at Illinois Central College in Peoria, IL.  He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Ohio University in Photography in 2003 and a Bachelors of Arts degree in Cinema and Photography from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1997. 

Christopher has an active national and international exhibition record, including the Emergence exhibition at the Peoria Riverfront Museum in 2017 and the 2019 exhibition at Peoria Magazine. He regularly lectures on topics related to his personal work, photography, art education, autism and learning differences.  
 
Christopher sat on the Board of Trustees for The Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning (ICDL), the advisory boards of the US Autism and Asperger Association, and the Madison House Autism Foundation. His photography can be found in the permanent collections of the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson MS; Webster University, The Netherlands; and in the Koltsovo Airport, Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation.

www.christophergauthier.com

Christoph Franke says, "I am inspired by the idea that photographic images create associations in the brain not merely based on optical information but rather that – similar to water – they store and release energy. Originally influenced by the encounter with the alchemist and photographer Marino Lazzeroni, I am now experimenting with the concept of “Zen in the Art of Archery” in my photography in order to achieve a moment of oneness with the subject.I am particularly interested in the principle of polarity. Opposites make the reality as we know it. It is with the help of the basic fondamentals above and below, light and shadow or yin and yang that we are able to perceive the material world. I feel that photography is an excellent medium to shine a light on these concepts. Following my main subject “On the Nature of Things” I would like to invite the viewer to a new experience of what we usually take for granted.
 
About the series Nightwalk:
I am fascinated by the idea that oxygen produced by trees flows through us like water flows through fish. Without their oxygen our life is not possible.
I found expressive branches and trunks, which remind me partly of human torsi, partly of trumpets, which sound loudly from the ground.

The trees seem so alive to me, as if they were speaking with an unknown language.
With the help of multiple exposures, I created photographs directly on site that correspond to my perception of the subtle tones of nature's creatures.
 
Skype christoph-franke-art
LinkedIn christophfrankephotography

www.christoph-franke-art.com
look@christoph-franke-art.com
 
REPRESENTED in France by
Dominique Charlet Photographies

Daniel Kariko says of a selection of images from: The Island: Louisiana’s Endangered Wetlands, "Louisiana is experiencing the highest rate of coastal erosion in America, losing about one hundred yards of land every thirty minutes- land loss the size of a football field every half-hour.

The barrier islands of Southeast Louisiana are some of the youngest and most unstable landforms on earth. They average 5000 years in age, and are rapidly changing shape and disappearing due to the man-altered flow of the Mississippi delta. Timbalier Island, for example, averaged 20m/year towards Northwest, during the last century (U.S. geological survey).

During the early 1800’s some of the barrier islands served as summer resorts to wealthy families from New Orleans. In 1856 a devastating hurricane hit Isle Dernieres causing great loss of life and property, and nearly splitting the island in half. Since then more than a dozen major storms, including Katrina, changed the geography of the coast. Today, most of them are sand bars with a little more than skeletal remnants of industry and a few deteriorating fishing camps. In spite of that, these Islands represent the “First Line of Defense” against large hurricanes.

Isle de Jean Charles is a historical home of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw people. In the past 60 years the community lost over 98 percent of their land due to rising sea levels and land subsidence. This process continues. In 2016 the people of Isle de Jean Charles were awarded 50 million dollars from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund their resettlement process. Many choose to remain on the land they occupied since 1830s. This represents the case of some of the first environmental resettlements on U.S. mainland due to recent global environmental changes.

This series of photographs represents a long-term investigation of gradual changes in wetlands geography and population in Southern Louisiana, due to human and natural activity. The global environmental concerns that place Louisiana in center of world’s attention make this project relevant and timely. Our, often adversarial relationship with the world outside ultimately reveals our inability to adapt to the natural process. These photographs set out to illustrate the results of such failed relations."
 
Daniel Kariko is a North Carolina based artist, and an Associate Professor of Fine Art Photography in School of Arts and Design at East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina.
 
Kariko’s images investigate environmental and political aspects of landscape, use of land and cultural interpretation of inhabited space. Inspired by his childhood during the civil war in Balkans, his interests in history and science inform his artwork, through inquiry in geopolitics, and disappearing and changing landscape.He worked on several long-term photographic projects in his native Serbia, recording the aftermath of the war in Balkans.

Since 1999 Kariko documented the endangered wetlands and dramatic changes in the landscape in Barataria- Terrebonne region of South Louisiana. His other projects include documentation of foreclosed housing in Florida during the 2008-09 real estate crisis, and scanning electron microscope portraits of locally found insects.
 
Kariko’s work has been shown nationally and internationally in galleries and museums, as: Noorderlicht Photofestival, Groeningen, The Netherlands; Yixian International Photography Festival, Huangshan City, China; Manchester Science Festival, UK; Rewak Gallery, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Edinburgh International Science Festival, UK; Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia; Rijeka Foto Festival, Croatia; Fries Museum, The Netherlands; Festival della Scienza di Verona, Italy; Photon Gallery, Vienna, Austria; Royal Albert Hall, London, UK; ArtCell Gallery, Cambridge, UK; Galata Museo del Mare, Genova, Italy; Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL; and The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, Albuquerque, NM.

Kariko’s work was featured in a number of online and printed publications, including: Nature, Art Papers, CNN Photos, National Geographic Proof, PetaPixel, Wired, Design Observer, and Discover Magazine.
 
Kariko received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana and his Masters of Fine Arts from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona in studio arts with a concentration in photography.

From 2002 until 2010 Kariko served as a faculty at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

Daniel Kariko, MFA
(He/Him/His)
Assistant Director, School of Art and Design,
Undergraduate Programs Director
Associate Professor, Photography
 
East Carolina University
Leo W. Jenkins Fine Art Center
Greenville, NC 27858

Information about this image:
Grand Isle Coastal Erosion- A historical town of Grand Isle, Louisiana continues to struggle with various environmental factors caused by climate change and human activity. Tropical storms, littoral drift, sea rise, and oil spills are a part of the island’s everyday concerns.

www.danielkariko.com

Edison Dardar’s Sign- Mr. Dardar is a community leader and an activist from Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana. He has been a vocal protector of the community and has been featured in a number of documentaries and news articles describing the plight of now infamous Isle de Jean Charles relocation attempt.

Salt Water Intrusion- Due to creation of commercial shipping channels, Louisiana’s marshes are dying under the effects of salinization. This further destabilizes the wetland buffer zones, and allows for accelerated coastal land loss.

Review by Curator Morgan Post: "This image has resonated with me profoundly.  I remember growing up in the Western U.S. and being told about animals and pests to avoid in and around my home.  Coyotes eating livestock or pets, skunks getting into the garbage, and deer crossing roads were the fault of animals invading us.  These animals were not the pests or invasive species in "my" yard, home, property or town. 

We as humans are the invasive species moving into these animals habitats where we profoundly change how they survive and in many cases how they thrive or disappear into oblivion.  We as a population are causing the largest mass extinction on the planet.  

As Americans, we feel it necessary to continue to hold onto this outdated sense of manifest destiny.  Expand until nothing is left, grow and invade the planet in the fastest and most profitable way possible. 

This photograph, I feel, clearly communicates how we lack the understanding of the impact on delicate habitats due to modern development.  The only concern is about ourselves and our selfishness.  Comfort comes at a cost, and every action no matter how small has an impact.  Tens of millions of small negative actions create an inevitable slow-moving crisis that many do not see until it's too late.  We have reached the breaking point of this tardiness.  These small impacts can be treated.  Millions of small positive impacts will create large and large impactful  positive results.  We are the stewards of our communities and environment.  

We as artists have a responsibility to bring these deficiencies of understanding to the forefront of the conversation.  I feel this image contributes to this dialogue."   

Morgan Post asks, "What do you feel people need to understand about this body of work?"
 
Debra Small says, "Having a background as a biologist, I understand the deeper ecological impacts from the loss of these lands, beyond the visual beauty of the natural landscapes. My keen understanding of the interconnectedness of the various species living in these ecosystems, and my research and knowledge of the secondary damaging effects that occur to the environment surrounding these developments, even after construction is completed, gives me insight into the larger picture of ecological destruction that is ongoing from suburban development.

This body of work is a wake up call to the destruction at hand from rampant development and a call to action. Although this project is a response to my own documentation and research in Northern California, this is not just a regional problem, but a global issue as well. The recently released United Nations comprehensive global assessment report, showing the threat to earth’s biodiversity from land use and human caused climate change was the result of a three year intergovernmental research assessment. The research found the world’s urban areas have more than doubled since 1992. The report estimates that up to 1 million plant and animal species, out of 8 million species found on earth, are at risk of extinction within decades. Rampant suburban development is one of the agents of this destruction and potential species extinction.

It is my hope that current and future generations will take a stand to preserve the biodiversity of the natural environment. By demanding that local, state, and federal agencies actually do their job to protect the environment, and by becoming active in environmental protection non-profits, individuals can make their voices heard with respect to preservation efforts.
           
Post asks, "Why did you decide to take on this project?"
 
Small says, "As a native Californian, I have observed the continual march of development out of cities and into adjacent undeveloped natural lands throughout the state over my lifetime. During the last seven years, the conversion of natural land to a developed landscape has been occurring at a staggering rate here in Northern California, where I currently live. Watching large sections of open savanna grasslands and oak woodlands in the Sacramento Valley and adjacent foothill regions disappearing in as short as three years prompted me to document this disastrous change."
 
Post asks, "Who are your art making and photographic influences?"
 
Small says, "My own interest and passion for environmentalism was spurred on in the late 60’s when I read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. She pointedly showed the ugly side effects of agribusiness’ chemical warfare on the insect population in America, all in the name of profit margins. During this same time my interest in photography took hold and photographers such as Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter had a strong influence on me, both because of their magnificent photography, but also because of their environmental activism. It showed me that one’s art could be used to further an environmental or political issue.
           
Unlike Carson, whose writing showed the devastation that resulted from agribusiness’ indiscriminate usage of pesticides, Adams’ and Porter’s images showed beautiful lands that would be lost if we did not demand conservation measures from our government legislators.

Some of the contemporary photographers who have influenced my work include David Maisel, Daniel Beltrá, Deanna Witman, and Nick Brandt. Davis Maisel’s aerial photographs, from American Mine (2007), of the settling ponds filled with toxic wastes emanating from the mining operations have an eerie aesthetic beauty. He presents his work in an artistic and abstract manner that allows the viewer to question what the subject is that they are viewing.

Daniel Beltrá’s work illustrates the fragility of our ecosystems. His aerial        photographs juxtapose the natural world with the destruction brought about by unsustainable development. This photographic perspective helps emphasize how finite the resources of this planet are. His portfolio, Spill, documents the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He shows the magnitude of the onslaught against nature from this man-made environmental disaster and where the responsibility lay.

Deanna Witman was inspired to embark on the project Melt due to issues revolving around global warming. Scientists feel that within a decade, many of the snowiest mountaintops in the world will be devoid of snow due to increased temperatures from global warming. She used satellite imagery from around the world to document this climate change effect. These images allow people to see what may be lost. Her exhibition prints are salt prints toned with gold to insure archival permanence. This creates a permanent record of the glacial melt phenomenon occurring on these peaks.

Nick Brandt has photographed East Africa’s animals and ecosystems since 2001. He documents the wild animals and their habitat, both of which are rapidly being lost to the encroachment and destructive nature of human beings. The images in his latest project, Inherit The Dust, portray the loss of habitat due to human encroachment and destruction, and the ultimate loss of the wildlife itself.

Aside from the above-mentioned artists, I have also been influenced by the work of Sebastião Salgado and Edward Burtynsky."
 
Additional review by curator Fran Forman:
"Morgan Post ’s statement is powerful and, sadly, true. We are destroying our planet and its fragile and interconnected ecosystem through sheer greed and ignorance. The image by Debra Small captures this in a profound and heartbreaking way. Thank you, Debra, for illustrating the senseless slaughter of our non-human companions, and thank you, Morgan, for calling it to our attention."
www.franforman.com

Additional review by curator Steve Zmak: "Just the larger photo of the barbed wire fence and development sign blocking natural open space to the horizon is a strong message about the human apathetic lack of stewardship of our plant in pursuit of shallow economic interests. With the addition of the second photo of the coyote being blocked by a wall, the artist exponentially adds power to the message. This image breaks my heart it is so emotionally moving."
stevezmak.com

More about Debra Small:
Small says, "The wild landscape of the Western United States is being rapidly converted to a built landscape due to suburban development. The destructive nature of these large-scale developments immediately disrupts the ecosystems. Even after these developments are completed, they continue to destroy the adjacent environment in the wild-land urban interface due to human caused wildfires, habitat fragmentation, enhancing invasive species migration, surface and groundwater pollution, soil erosion, and pesticide impacts on wildlife. Habitat Lost is a response to this uncontrolled ecological destruction.

The work is comprised of large 20” x 30” black and white, digital prints of the constructed environment. Furthering the dialogue of environmental loss, small fabric kallitype prints, encased in encaustic wax, of the lost wildlife and habitat, hang in front of the black and white images, creating an unorthodox diptych.

The environmental impacts from suburban developments are pervasive, widespread and not easily resolved. Changes to zoning requirements, community planning, and the use of infill development can provide short term mitigation to the onslaught of environmental damage from rampant over-development. However, long-term preservation of biodiversity will require us to embrace the moral principles of ecocentric thought, accepting that all living things have intrinsic value and are interconnected. This conversion of ethical thought will not occur overnight, but failure to move in this direction will continue to adversely affect our ecological sustainability, leading to further disruption of habitats and the extinction of species."
 
Debra Small received her bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1978 from the University of California, Riverside. She worked as a scientist for the State of California for over 10 years. Returning to her love of photography, Debra received her associate of science degree in photography as well as her certificate of achievement in photography in 2015 from Sierra College, Rocklin, CA. She received her Master of Fine Arts in photography at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, in July 2018.
 
As a fine art documentary photographer, Debra explores important environmental and socio-political issues. She shoots in digital as well as medium and large format film. She also uses alternative process photography to create her images. Her current body of work is a fine art documentary project exploring wildlife and habitat loss due to suburban development.
 
Her work has been exhibited in numerous juried and non-juried exhibitions and has received a number of awards including Artistic Distinction Award, ‘Light Is All’ exhibition, Stone Voices Magazine; Honorable Mention, 2012 Photography Competition, Artist Portfolio Magazine; Finalist, 2013 International Fine Art Photography Award, Grand Prix de la Découverte; Honorable Mention, 2013 American Art Today: Figures Exhibition, The Bascom, Highland, North Carolina; 2013 Hallberg Merit Scholarship Award for artistic achievement; 2014 Nudes, A Romantic Encounter, Solo Exhibition, Viewpoint Photographic Gallery, Sacramento, CA; 2015 Best Photograph Still Point VII Art Exhibition; Finalist (3 images) 2015 7th Edition of The Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers; 2016 Berlin Foto Biennale, 4th Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography in Berlin, Germany; 2018 Perspectives Exhibition, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; 2018 Master of Fine Arts Summer Thesis Exhibition, Sharon Arts Center Gallery, NHIA, Peterborough, New Hampshire; 2018 Alternative Processes Exhibition, SoHo Photo Gallery, New York, New York; and 2019 Habitat Lost, Solo Exhibition, Viewpoint Photographic Gallery, Sacramento, CA.
 
Recently her work has been published in the Sierra Journal, Stone Voices Magazine, Still Points Arts Quarterly Magazine, the 7th Edition of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers, the Berlin Foto Biennale, Emotions and Commotions across Cultures, Hawk and Handsaw – Journal of Creative Sustainability, and Lenscratch – Fine Art Photography Daily (http://lenscratch.com/2019/07/debra-small-habitat-lost-negative-effects-of-suburban-sprawl-on-ecosystems/ ).
 

Elizabeth Ellenwood says, "The ocean is a vast world full of layers and dimensions, most of which goes unseen by the majority of the human population. Sadly, each year billions of pounds of trash pollute the world’s waterways which degrades ecosystems that are vital for a healthy planet. The lack of visual presence and understanding is creating a separation between the direct impact our acts as consumers is having on our seas. 

My recent work Among the Tides, aims to illuminate some of the challenges facing our coastlines as well as provoke each viewer to help make a difference for our oceans. Using different methods of photography my project showcases trash collected on beaches in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Using the historical photographic processes of cyanotype and wet plate collodion, each image demands attention to the pressing matter of debris present in our oceans. In each process I use recycled materials of paper or glass, embracing the imperfections each has to offer.

The photogram technique references an imprint, creating an evidence log of humans’ signatures on our environment. Beautiful yet haunting this work makes visible the immediacy of our ocean pollution crisis. Art has the ability to connect with people and to be an engaging form of distributing information. The goal of Among the Tidesis to create and share artwork that visually and emotionally pulls the viewer to the point of motivating behavior change. The pollution in our ocean is a global issue, but there are individual steps we can all take to help form a more sustainable future."
 
Elizabeth Ellenwood received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from The New Hampshire Institute of Artin 2010. Since beginning her graduate degree at The University of Connecticut, she has merged her passion for the ocean with her artistic practice. Ellenwood uses her knowledge in photography to visually explore and bring attention to critical environmental issues we are facing today. This year, her project Among the Tideshas received The Connecticut Sea Grant Arts Support Award, The Zachs Award, and The Denis Roussel Merit Award. She recently exhibited her work at The Vermont Center of Photography and at The Alexey von Schlippe Gallery.
 
Career Highlights:
 
Awards:
2019     Connecticut Sea Grant Arts Support Award
2019     Merit Award Winner, Denis Roussel Award
2019     Zachs Award, The University of Connecticut 
2019     Dean Jerome Birdman Scholarship Award, The University of Connecticut
 
Publications:
2019     Westerly Sun, Westerly artist finds inspiration in plastics discarded at the beach, by Nancy Burns-Fusaro
2019     The Express, Town is 12th in R.I. to ban single use plastic bags, by Dale P. Faulkner
2017     Art New England Magazine,These Times and Shapes, review by Cerys Wilson
2015     The Boston Globe, Differing Visions of Photography at Danforth Art, review by Mark Feeney
 
Solo Exhibitions:
2017     These Times and Shapes, Sharon Arts Center Gallery, curated by Sam Trioli - Peterborough, NH
2015     Of Light and Line, Danforth Museum of Art, curated by Jessica Roscio -Framingham, MA
 
Group Exhibitions:
2019     Being Without Being, Alexey von Schlippe Gallery – Groton, CT
2019     2019 Open Juried Exhibit, Vermont Center for Photography, Juried by Bruce Myren - Brattleboro, VT
2018     Photography Alumni Exhibition, NHIA Gallery, Juried by Theresa Choi, Karen Hass, Yoav Horesh, Arlette Kayafas, Glen Scheffer - Manchester, NH
2017     Stare, Boston City Hall, Juried by Karen Haas - Boston, MA
 
Bottle, Collected on 9/19/18 at East Beach Watch Hill, RI

www.elizabethellenwood.com
Instagram @among_the_tides

Evan Perkins says, "'When Light is Put Away' evolved from my fascination with astronomy and the vastness of the night sky. I spent my nights photographing the heavens in an attempt to satisfy my longing to access worlds lightyears away. In the midst of this process, I discovered that the artificially lit nocturnal world began to mimic the imagery I was aiming to make with my photographs of the night sky. The darkness of night created a celestial landscape that enabled a transportation to an ambiguous time and place, a curious world peculiarly rooted in the familiar. 


Imagery of the heavens is established in our vernacular, allowing a blurring between science and fantasy. Expectations of celestial imagery are highly informed through interpretations by science-fiction media in addition to scientific data. These expectations have been enhanced with the genre of films and novels referred to as “hard science fiction.” These films and novels portray imagery that aim to be scientifically plausible and credible. Whether or not the information is factual, it feeds in to the expectations of public perception.

One of the most popular premises in hard science fiction is our ability to cultivate civilizations on other planets. While these ideas may have originated in fictitious dialogues, they also occupy conversations in the scientific community. Scientists continue to reveal the declination of our climate, with human influence closing in on irreversible. With these continued studies, science and popular culture have furthered their fascinations with predictions of the fate of our own planet and the potential of civilizations on others. What was once a premonition of hypothetical means has become a palpable concern. 

With this urgency and dialogue in mind, these photographs create a world that embodies a planet rooted both in reality and fantasy. The world rendered is one of the naturally uncanny and enchanting, a seductive landscape in which the line between present-day Earth and prospective otherworldly terrain is blurred. The images further depict an isolated world caught amid a semblance of construction and disrepair. Man-made structures are stripped of their contexts and highlight their own obsolescence. Using the visual language of both astronomy and fantasy, this new landscape adopts contradictions of a virulent and destructive sense of beauty, revealing traces of natural resilience in spite of an unknown posterity."

Evan Perkins is a Boston-based artist and recent photography BFA graduate with departmental honors from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. His photographs delve into acute explorations of the natural world and are highly influenced by matters of natural history, including botany, meteorology, and astronomy. Perkins is also the Online Exhibition Curator & Digital Lab Manager at Aviary Gallery in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Selected Exhibition History (C.V.)

2019-“The Big Reveal: Telling Truth in an Age of Fiction”, El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe —Santa Fe, NM (In collaboration with Center Santa Fe)

2019- “Abandoned Landscape”, South East Center for Photography—Greenville, SC

2019- “Urban Lights”, Millepiani Exhibition Space—Rome, Italy

2019- “Gallery Kayafas Portfolio Walk”, Gallery Kayafas—Boston, MA

2019- “30th Annual MassArt Auction”, Massachusetts College of Art and Design—Boston, MA

2019- “Undergraduate Photography Now VII”, Photographic Resource Center—Cambridge, MA

2019- “Photography All School Show”, Massachusetts College of Art and Design—Boston, MA

2019- “Dust Collective Handmade Books Exhibition”, Aviary Gallery—Jamaica Plain, MA

http://evanperkinsphotography.com/
 

Kathryn Dunlevie says, "'THE TAXIDERMIST'S IMAGINARIUM',
In this series I am combining my photographs of zoos and natural history museums with those of contemporary urban settings. The resulting compositions suggest disruptions in space and time and the strange bedfellows these disruptions create.

As I add layer upon layer, interweaving elements from the natural world with images from artificial and constructed worlds, animal harbingers materialize in anomalous locations. Stunned to find themselves in alien surroundings – disoriented, mistrustful, even forlorn – they mutely proclaim their vulnerability to today’s threatened ecosystem."

Kathryn Dunlevie is a photography-based artist whose work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and internationally. Cathy Kimball, Executive Director of the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, writes of Dunlevie’s work:
"Through brilliant compositional detail and manipulation, she creates disconcerting, surprising, inexplicable spaces and scenarios – swimming pools that have many points of entry, cloisters with multiple arched domes, streetscapes that elude mapmakers, and interior settings that are almost, but not quite, right.
"Born on the east coast, Dunlevie lived in six different states by the time she was 12, and in Paraguay when she was 16. She has a B.A. in fine arts from Rice University, and studied art history and film at the University of Paris, painting at California College of the Arts, and photography in Madrid. She lives in Palo Alto.

Dunlevie has received numerous awards and fellowships, including two Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Laureate Fellowships. Her work has been exhibited at FotoFest International since 2002, at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China, at Studio Thomas Kellner in Germany, in the US Art in Embassies Program in Moscow and in Saatchi Arts’ Best of 2014. Her work has been reviewed in Spain’s La Fotografia Actual, Korea’s photo + and  Germany’s Profifoto, as well as in The New York Times, Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts, Photo Metro, Artweek, and Artlies.
Highlights of Career:

Eight solo exhibitions at FotoFest International (Houston) (2002 - 2018)

Included in China's PingYao International Photography Festival (2017)

Included in Saatchi Art's "BEST of 2014"

Reviewed in Korea's Photo+ magazine, (2013)

Included in "Parallax Views", San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, California (2013)

Chosen four times for Germany's  Photographers Network Selection (2006-2013)

Included the US Art in Embassies Program in Moscow (2012) 

Two time Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Laureate Fellow with cash awards and solo exhibitions at the Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California (2001 and 2005)

Included in "Fresh Work IV: Actualities", Southeast Museum of Photography, Florida (2004)

Included in "Timekeepers", San Francisco Camerawork,  San Francisco, California (2000)

www.kathryndunlevie.com
 

Laziza Rakhimova says, "Man-maid environmental tragedy-It used to be the world’s largest lake . The Aral Sea has been shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers were diverted by  the irrigation projects. In August 2014 the eastern basin of the Aral Sea had completely dried up.
This is "one of the planet's worst environmental tragedies".  The region around the lake is also heavily polluted with salt from the lake, with serious health problems. I captured these images 10 years ago and glad to have an opportunity to remind everyone about the catastrophe that was created by humans in this part of the world."
 
From Central Asia to France, Canada and the United States, I have crossed borders many times and evolved as a photographic artist. Walking on the streets of New York, where one cannot exist without not finding the artistic self, I started from “hunting” on the streets for decisive moments and lately moved on to creating melancholic portraiture, abstract and infrared environmental photography.
 
An infrared camera helps me capture blazing highlights and deep shadows invisible to the naked eye. Mordançage enhances my photographic message. I’m a member of Professional Women Photographers association in NYC, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, ConArtist Collective NYC."
 
ART/Photography EDUCATION
 
2015 -2017    Dawson College Photography, Montreal
2017-19       ICP continued education, New York
 
GROUP EXHIBITIONS & PUBLICATIONS
 
2019              Presentation of Contaminated Water project at the
                       BWAC and Chashama show
2019              Image Flow, San Francisco
2019              Chashama : self-identity show
2019              Atlantic Gallery Chelsea, Abstracted reality
                        exhibition , New York USA
2019              “Glimpses of our world exhibition” Salmagundi Art
                        Club, New York, USA
2019              Upstream Gallery New York, USA
2019              Photo book “Seeing through New York” (author)
2018              Winner of the Alternative photography competition,
                       Soho  Photography Gallery. New York, USA
2018              Winner of the photography competition, Image Flow,
                        San Francisco, USA
2019               Deadpan portraiture portfolio: Shadow and life fine art magazine
2017               Shuba magazine editorial

https://www.abstractperspectives.art/ @abstarct_perspectives

 

Megen Porter says, "Meg Porter was born and raised partially in the cityscapes of California and rural backroads of Virginia, two very opposite cultures with differing values.  Her father, a peaceable, generous, and fair man, combined with the determination, stubbornness, and grit from her mother has molded Meg to see things in a broader light, and to hone in on issues that require empathy and subtle probing. 
 
Meg continues to educate herself, pursuing her college degree despite a high school pregnancy and single parenting stint.  Like every other artist, wanting to be a well-known and successful photographer would be great, but her love of giving back and teaching is her major goal.  She is working towards her Master's degree in Fine Arts with the hope of teaching on the college level to students who are excited to learn about photography.  She has had a solo exhibit titled Synchronicity, and her work has been part of numerous group exhibits in several U.S. States.  You can see more of her work at www.megenporter.com.

These three images were taken over the Summer as part of a series from the Earth.  The first photograph depicts a large swath of sky, under which a dam stores up water from the desert of New Mexico, protecting the source of water for people, but not the Earth.  The second one is a direct link to the human waste that our Earth is collecting on a daily basis and the final photograph is of a barren beach that does not allow swimming.  As an artist, these things: Sky, Water, Earth, Waste, are intertwined in the lack of care for our planet."

www.megporterphotography.com
www.megenporter.com

@megporterphotography
 

Micah B Rubin says, "Blue, sulfur-fueled fire burns in the 9,082-foot Kawah Ijen volcano. Miners toil in its hellish conditions as they literally pry raw sulfur from the active volcano’s 660-foot deep crater. Despite the roiling liquid sulfur, acidic steam, and a boiling acid lake, Ijen’s miners labor without protective equipment. After filling wicker baskets with up to 100 kilograms of sulfur, miners haul their load up a 45-degree slope and down the volcano to a refinery three-kilometers away. The labor is difficult, dirty and dangerous, but well paid by local standards. Workers earn around $13.00 a day depending on the number of trips made (usually one or two).

Kawah Ijen is also one the Earth’s few artisanal sulfur mining operations, a consequence of small local demand and low wages. (Most of the world’s sulfur is a byproduct of oil refining and natural gas processing.)

Ijen’s lake is the largest, acidic crater lake in the world at 722-meters in diameter and a 0.41-square kilometer surface area. Its beautiful turquoise color is a result of extreme acidity and high concentration of dissolved metals. In July 2008, an explorer paddled a small rubber boat to the middle of the lake and measured a pH of 0.13. Ijen Lake is also the source for the Banyupahit River (Banyupahit means “bitter water” in the local dialect). Its naturally polluted waters mix with fresh water and increase the river’s pH, adds oxygen, and spreads the dissolved metals. This natural pollution degrades the nearby drainage basin and the quality of water that can be used for irrigation.

While photographing this story – without any protective equipment beyond a red bandana on my face – the winds shifted and drowned our group in a fiery cloud of sulfur. Our lungs burned and I could hardly open my eyes to shoot. It got so bad, I literally had to drag someone – while stumbling through the cloud myself – to safety beyond the noxious gas. I can only imagine what the miners endure day, day out and appreciated the opportunity to document the volcanos and nature's power.

I love to travel—I’ve visited 58 countries at last count—and assignments have sent me throughout the U.S., and the world. Highlights include multiple trips to India (including during the 2004 tsunami), Myanmar’s desolate Mrauk U temple complex, Costa Rica’s “Alcatraz” (San Lucas Prison), and Colombia’s sleepy, colonial island town of Mompox."

As an award-winning New York City-based photographer specializing in documentary, reportage, and travel imagery, I’ve had so many enriching experiences. My images reveal people, places, and ideas that empower viewers to step beyond their comfort zone and into the enormous—yet intimately intertwined—world we share.

When not on the road, I watch fabulous sunsets from the riverfront Brooklyn apartment I share with my entrepreneurial wife and our strawberry blonde 2-year-old daughter. (She insists on saying “Night, Night” to the Manhattan skyline before bed.) And then there is our affectionate black poodle-mix and certified therapy dog, Maurice, who comes along on our adventures.

1st Place - Best Picture Story 2015 New York Press Association  

2nd Place - Documentary Photo (hasn't been publicly announced yet so i will fill in later if needed).
 

www.micahbrubin.com

blog.micahbrubin.com

Michael Zuhorski says, of his series, 'Eyes Make the Horizon', "Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is an insular body of land. The largest freshwater system in the world defines its borders and seeps through its interior, isolating the peninsula. In November 2015 I began living near the peninsula’s north shore with the intention of photographing over a period of several years. The act of looking became insular in sympathy with my surroundings. My practice began to articulate the environment’s effect upon my state of mind and my mind’s effect upon the environment.

These interactions were guided by the ubiquitous presence of water. I photographed the effects of water upon the peninsula and the wetlands, rivers, and lakes that cut through and enclosed it. I became fixated upon the idea of water as a body – dynamic and distinct from its surroundings yet completely tied into them. This is analogous to the way I understand myself in relation to my surroundings. Eyes Make the Horizon became a means to ask where I end and the world begins".

Michael Zuhorski was born in 1992 in Detroit, Michigan. At the College for Creative Studies, in Detroit, he received a BFA in photography. Currently he is an MFA student at Syracuse University. His work has been published and exhibited internationally, including in several solo exhibitions in the Midwestern United States. In his photographic practice he investigates the relationship between the act of looking and the character of his surroundings.

Career Highlights: 
Solo exhibitions and artist talks: 
2018, Eyes Make the Horizon, LSAA Gallery, Marquette, MI
2017, Eyes Make the Horizon, Creative House, Marquette, MI
2017, Eyes Make the Horizon, Subjectively Objective Gallery, Rochester, MI
Lectures:
2019, “Developing and Sustaining a Long-term Body of Work”, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
2018, “Sustaining a Photographic Art Practice”, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
Awards:
2018 Photolucida Critical Mass 2018 Finalist for Eyes Make the Horizon
Bibliography:
NOICE. Magazine, Issue .009
Obscura Land, Volume 2
Eyes Make the Horizon, published by Subjectively Objective 

michaelzuhorski.com

Oren Darling says, "When asked if I consider myself a travel photographer, my answer is a firm, "No. Absolutely not."

My work is about place, not travel. Similarly, my photography gravitates toward the interaction and intersections between people and place rather than the people themselves.

These liminal spaces may be tranquil or violent, but throughout my life, these interactions have grown noticeably more hostile as we move ever closer to the brink of environmental catastrophe.

Nature is not turning against us. To say so implies that we had somehow gain control or beaten it into submission. It is we who have turned against nature as the aggressor.

We must feel empathy toward those who are caught in the violent spectrum of liminal spaces between their lives and the environment, but we must also absorb these scenes into a collective memory, projecting ourselves into the scene rather than absorbing a stranger's story from a safe distance.

I was born and raised in Warren, Pennsylvania. My name is taken from Oren Lyons, a Native American civil rights activist and Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.

I completed my MFA in Electronic and Time Based Art at Purdue University in 2015. I previously studied in the Intermedia MFA program at the University of Maine and received my BA from Alfred University in 2005. Currently, I live in Indiana where I am creative manager for the Purdue Research Foundation, a non-profit science, engineering, and economic development organization."

Career Highlights:

Solo Installations
2015
Salvaged Narratives: War, Family, and Memory, Patty and Rusty Rueff Galleries, Yue-Kong-Pao Hall of Visual and Performing Arts, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
2013
Room 641A, Foam City, Lafayette, IN

Group Exhibitions
2015
First International Exchange Exhibition, White Gallery, Keimyung University, Daegu, South Korea
Polarization: Purdue Ecological Sciences and Engineering Symposium Art Gallery, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
2014
THEM? Robotic Interventions, Frontier Main Street Window Gallery, Lafayette, IN
2013
Between the Rough, 210 6th Street, Lafayette, IN
Networked Objects, Foam City, Lafayette, IN
2012
Night Lights at the Gardens, collaboration with Steve French, Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens, Buffalo, NY
2011
Kaleidoscope Gallery, Kahbang Arts, Bangor, ME
2010
Convey, group performance with Carol Ayoob, Karen Montanaro, Anatole Wieck, Sarah Cottrell, and Dennis St. Pierre, Minskey Theater, Orono, ME
Night Lights at the Heron, collaboration with Steve French, Great Blue Heron, Sherman, NY

Juried Exhibitions
2019
Earth Elements, Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita, KS
2018
The State of America, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT
2017
In the Zone | Black and White Photography, 1650 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Field Work: Light and Shadow, Black Box Gallery, Portland, OR
Black and White: 2017, Black Box Gallery, Portland, OR
2016
Night Photography: Dusk to Dawn, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT
2015
H2O, juried exhibition, Darkroom Gallery, Essex Junction, VT
Roots and Branches, Don’t Take Pictures Magazine, Online Gallery
2014
Westwood Art Exhibition, Westwood residence of Purdue University president, West Lafayette, IN

Image:
An Open Wound - While hiking in the Faroe Islands, I came across this section of exposed pipe in the middle of the landscape. It served as a reminder that human intervention is hiding just below the surface of even the most desolate, remote, and seemingly untouched places. 
 

Into The Abyss - I have always loved storms, but the Midwest elevates the potential danger of violent weather in sometimes sudden and unpredictable ways. This storm passed over me at high speed on my 35th birthday without unleashing even a drop of rain, but as I moved from place to place taking photos, there was a dark sense of dangerous times in the years ahead.

The Aftermath - This barn in northern Vermont was blown apart by Hurricane Irene when it rumbled across New England in 2011 and appeared to be untouched over 6 years later. There was a palpable feeling of despair and resignation in the scene despite the perfect light and cloud cover at sunset.


www.orendarling.com
www.instagram.com/ordarling

Paul Ivanushka says, "Project Statement
"Maricopa – A Time Now Over"
I have a profound respect for the city of Maricopa, its past and present. I see its people and machinery as a collection of loosely organized memories covered in bruises, a blurry patina from their service and use, cast aside, their useful time now over. Maricopa, in California, is host to the third largest oil field, Midway-Sunset, in the United States. 

Discovered in 1850's they have been running non-stop since the early 1900’s. These oil fields once the sign of American prosperity have contributed to our countries unprecedented economic growth and provided us with an unequaled quality of life, at the same time fueling a 19th and 20th century worldwide industrial revolution. Changes in global climate and alternative fuel technologies have now marginalized their need its equipment archaic and are now life-threatening beasts. As a result, the local population along with their businesses have all but vanished leaving behind remnants of a city and an industry whose useful time is past."
 
Paul Ivanushka Biography
Paul Ivanushka (b. 1960, Highland, NY) is a fine art photographer currently “In the woodshed” studying the vicissitudes of gum printing using single and multiple negatives.
 
After studying at Brooks Institute of Photography Paul spent most of his career in the printing industry learning and managing tone reproduction on high speed web offset presses.
 
Paul's work has been exhibited throughout the country, including the South East Center for Photography, Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, Davis Orton Gallery, Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins,  South East Center for Photography in Greenville  South Carolina;  Los Angeles Art Core, The Los Angeles Center of Photography, Gallery 825 and the Topanga Canyon , dnj and Tag galleries in the Los Angeles area;  the Black Box Gallery in Portland, Oregon, Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction, VT and the Santa Cruz Art League.
 
Paul is a Software Business Analyst and currently resides in Inglewood, California.
 
 

www.paulivanushkaphotography.com


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THE ENVIRONMENT & SOCIAL ACTIVISM HOME PAGE:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post

FIRST PLACE:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/first-place-debra-small-canis-latrans-coyote----/1

SECOND PLACE:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/second-place-christopher-gauthier-untitled-12----/1

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/honorable-mentions-michael-zuhorski-marquette-iron-tailings-march-13-stephanie-paine-sunlines-ii-steve-davis-untitled-daniel-kariko-grand-isle-coastal-erosion-laziza-rakhimova-dried-aral-sea----/1

EXHIBITION #1
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/exhibition-1/1

EXHIBITION #2
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-environment-social-activism-morgan-post/exhibition-2/1