About

I explore natural and social histories through photographs, books, paintings, objects and video to create multiple layered narratives about the interactions of humans and nature. For the last few years I have been photographing in natural history and medical collections, and incorporating these images (and the ways in which they are classified) into installations. While studying plant, animal and human samples, I try to tease out the connections between the collecting impulse, scientific discovery and the natural processes of growth and decay.

 My interests have driven me to try to better understand the nature of scientific discovery in the time of climate change. Since childhood, I have been fascinated by the natural world, which has led me to develop a deep appreciation of plants and animals, and an aesthetic impression of the environment. By collecting and documenting natural specimens, and by examining the processes by which these are catalogued, classified and tagged, I explore the fraught relationship humans have with the natural world.

 I am interested in the power of natural collections, plant, animal and human, as they contain the keys to understanding the history of the earth and how we might create resilience in the face of disastrous climate change.  The samples in museums and archives that have been gathered by scientists over hundreds of years, often unethically, hold a quiet power that is invaluable to our study of the planet. Just as herbarium collections are now being mined for DNA to serve as a benchmark of how plant species have changed, natural history samples can serve to foster new appreciation of our world historically and scientifically, as we compare our past, present and potential future.