Florida Project: New Thoughts on Springs and Swamps
The first time I photographed in Florida was in 1992. I have returned every year since continuing a photographic investigation of Florida’s wild freshwaters. I began photographing manatees and then the underwater habitats of the fragile springs and pristine rivers of the north and central parts of the state. More recently, I have been documenting and interpreting the primitive grandeur of the Greater Everglades ecosystem and its primordial swamps. This area includes Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park. I have been awarded Artist-in-Residence positions in both the park and the preserve. Throughout what has become an emotional and spiritual process as well, I am acutely aware of all the elements earth, water, fire and air; and how they intermix. I am driven to translate this visceral experience into my photographs. My work evolves literally like a river with many tributaries.
I bring you a unique view of rare landscapes. However, Florida is an incongruous puzzle both seductive and sickening. It is no secret that Florida is a victim of its own allure. Along with these unique environments it is screaming with out of control development. But I am not interested in making pictures of what created this mayhem; it’s in the media. The New Yorker in April had an article about what happens in communities near the Everglades when non-native species invade. In July, the national nightly news had a story about a 14-foot python eating a 6-foot alligator. We all know what post Disney strip malls, towering condominiums and McMansions look like. I want to show what you haven’t seen.
Florida’s waters are visually magnificent. My feeling toward these prehistoric waters comes from deep within my most primitive self. This was my initial attraction. But it is a fact that water is an endangered resource. Living preoccupied lives, water is far from our day-to-day consciousness and concern. My pictures remind you of the intricate and infinite nature of water. The prints are sensuous because the places I photograph are. If the images can provide a respite for the viewer he or she might have a moment of awareness and consider one of many possible scenarios. For example, you are enjoying a refreshing glass of water in Miami, only 45 minutes from the wilds of the Everglades. You are drinking water that originated in the swamp I slogged through to make the picture you just viewed.
These photographs are in no way intended to be a scientific mapping of Florida’s wilds. But, due to my pure obsession with these remarkable places it has become some sort of survey in a looser and poetic way. One location leads me to another. For instance, in June an idea developed incorporating some presence of community. This nascent sub-series evolved because of a fellowship at The Hermitage Artist Retreat, a small campus of historic buildings constructed around a prehistoric Calusa Indian midden. Our 27th state is culturally and naturally remarkable.
It is vital for me to photograph more in order to represent the true enormity and subtly of my subject. Through my acute attention to how the elements behave in the wet and dry season and how they intersect, I am able to record fleeting moments within these complex ecosystems resulting in elaborately layered photographs. However, this is not enough, for the region is vibrant and organic, requiring my fluidity of vision and continuing commitment of time and resources. For example, through the generosity of full time park employees, who not only know the land intimately but also have become my friends, teachers and protectors, I can gain access to restricted events and places. And with this personal support and networking I can photograph fires in the dry season when the swamp is ablaze. It is this continued support, coupled with my insight that provides me with the creative space to be there under the right conditions, during the right season, on the right day – and to find the right moments of revelation.
While the momentum of interest in my imagery continues to build, a mid career survey of this work at the Southeast Museum of Photography in 2011 is especially exciting. Running for four months, this exhibit will showcase 60-70 large-scale photographs recognizing in full my journey and consuming passion.
Swamps and Springs
The photographs provide a unique view – shot from a vantage point unfamiliar to most. They are hard to classify, try as people might. No one genre fits. They are landscapes, shot underwater and combined with elements of street shooting, documentary, the pictorial and the ethereal. This ambiguity is their strength and very much part of the world from which they come. The photographs are not manipulated. A description given to the pictures by one keen-eyed viewer is, that the images “instruct us on where natural history gives way to the sublime, the ineffable – the esthetic”.
The photographs were made in a geographical location that is both seductive and sickening. This place is Florida, home to some of the most unique and breathtaking ecosystems in the world but a home that must live alongside unceasing development. The pictures in this exhibition are from two related bodies of work, Springs and Swamps. The first series was shot in the pristine freshwater rivers and springs of north and central Florida. The exquisite natural light that graces these environments is used solely to illuminate these pictures. In open water there is ever-present particulate matter. This layering of mud and muck, although it may appear to interfere with the water’s clarity, is in fact it’s lifeblood: the living and breathing matter seasons the soup and it reflects, refracts and bends the light to create its complexity. This exploration and the resulting photographs inspired a trek to the southern part of the state where the most magnificent primordial swamps are located in Big Cypress National Preserve. A neighbor to the Everglades and a mere forty-five minutes from the sprawl of Miami to the east and Naples to the west, much of the preserve is completely wild and untouched. Via the good fortune of an Artist-in-Residence award from the preserve, the Swamps series began. The allure and mystery of these waters and the complicated puzzle of their continued existence inspires these pictures and continues to summon you and me to look even deeper.
Dark Sharks and Light Rays
The Dark Sharks and Light Rays are complementary series. They are photographed in the same remote locations off of the Americas. Throughout the course of one dive, both types of images are frequently made as the environment changes from crazy to calm. This is a deep and wild part of the sea. The Dark Sharks ask the viewer to bear witness to the power and visceral essence of the ancient ocean. These pictures are not the slicked up images of sharks that you would see in a scuba magazine. Rather then polished, the photographs are rendered in a way that is kindred to that of cave paintings because our feeling towards these animals comes from deep within our most primitive selves. These are prehistoric creatures in ancient waters and their quintessential nature is primeval. The Light Rays are a counterpoint to the Dark Sharks. They are printed in a delicate manner and represent the “Zen” of the ocean, the peaceful, meditative, qualities of the vast bewitching sea.