small kingdoms breathing
2020 - 2022
Over these past two years of pandemic, I set aside time to photograph the natural world around me as a form of meditation and refuge. The images in this project reflect the solace, peace and magic found there. Mary Oliver’s poem, Sleeping in the Forest, describes this sense of reverie, seeing nature as a loving being, as a sanctuary, as “Gaia”.
The images in this collection are hand printed using the platinum palladium process, illuminating the idea of daydreaming and reflection.
“Sleeping in the Forest
I thought the earth
remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
- Mary Oliver”
Two books featuring work from this project. 7” x 7” kettle stitch book with platinum palladium handmade prints tipped in; 4” x 4” accordion book with archival pigment prints. Both books printed on Hahnemuhle Agave paper.
