A Nearly Fatal Illusion
CHON: Selections from A Nearly Fatal Illusion
I live most of the year in Prescott, Arizona and the remaining time I spend in Absarokee, Montana. For the past five years I have been photographing in and around the Powder River Basin in north central Wyoming (see Cartography and the Cultural Terrain), a stunning landscape where energy exploration is expanding exponentially. Wyoming is “ground zero” for oil, gas and coal exploration. Mining, drilling, hydraulic fracturing and transportation of energy resources takes a huge toll on the natural environment, destroying habitat for a great number of species (from sage grouse to pronghorn, trout to humans), leaving unsightly scars and detritus while contaminating ground water reserves. But currently, we are a society dependent upon fossil fuels. If our western habitats are to survive massive industrial development of energy resources, warming temperatures, pollution, and livestock grazing then we must begin to embrace our responsibilities.
A Nearly Fatal Illusion is a direct reference to Barry Commoner’s ideas from The Closing Circle regarding contemporary society’s alleged independence from nature. This lack of recognition that we are a part of nature, not separate from it is a core problem to our understanding the sustainability of our practices and the repercussions of our actions on these life forms and processes. It seems imperative that we begin to recognize our roles in the solutions as well as in the problems. See installation views here....
I live most of the year in Prescott, Arizona and the remaining time I spend in Absarokee, Montana. For the past five years I have been photographing in and around the Powder River Basin in north central Wyoming (see Cartography and the Cultural Terrain), a stunning landscape where energy exploration is expanding exponentially. Wyoming is “ground zero” for oil, gas and coal exploration. Mining, drilling, hydraulic fracturing and transportation of energy resources takes a huge toll on the natural environment, destroying habitat for a great number of species (from sage grouse to pronghorn, trout to humans), leaving unsightly scars and detritus while contaminating ground water reserves. But currently, we are a society dependent upon fossil fuels. If our western habitats are to survive massive industrial development of energy resources, warming temperatures, pollution, and livestock grazing then we must begin to embrace our responsibilities.
A Nearly Fatal Illusion is a direct reference to Barry Commoner’s ideas from The Closing Circle regarding contemporary society’s alleged independence from nature. This lack of recognition that we are a part of nature, not separate from it is a core problem to our understanding the sustainability of our practices and the repercussions of our actions on these life forms and processes. It seems imperative that we begin to recognize our roles in the solutions as well as in the problems. See installation views here....
Biosphere 2
While on sabbatical I was awarded an opportunity to be artist in residence at Biosphere 2. My time there allowed me to shift my focus from one of concern, anger and despair about our changing environment to that of hope and possibility. My own visual research led me to scrape the surface of understanding the interconnectedness and complexity of life’s biological processes. B2 is a place where attention to biological processes is the order of the day and where one sees evidence of scientists, students and artists turning concern into knowledge, and knowledge into solutions for change.
CHON
Carbon-Hydrogen-Oxygen-Nitrogen
These four elements; are the core of life’s sustaining cycles, events and processes including respiration, photosynthesis, decomposition, oxidation and precipitation. In this new body of photographs I attempt to explore the intersection of art, science and nature, chaos and climate, while trying to understand the tenuous equilibrium that these core elements play within the ecosystem, for reclamation and restoration of a planet in peril. This selection of photographs focus on a visual investigation of these elements within life's soup amidst the arid landscapes west of the 100th meridian contrasted alongside images of natural reclamation occurring in an abandoned battery at Fort Worden, Washington.
While on sabbatical I was awarded an opportunity to be artist in residence at Biosphere 2. My time there allowed me to shift my focus from one of concern, anger and despair about our changing environment to that of hope and possibility. My own visual research led me to scrape the surface of understanding the interconnectedness and complexity of life’s biological processes. B2 is a place where attention to biological processes is the order of the day and where one sees evidence of scientists, students and artists turning concern into knowledge, and knowledge into solutions for change.
CHON
Carbon-Hydrogen-Oxygen-Nitrogen
These four elements; are the core of life’s sustaining cycles, events and processes including respiration, photosynthesis, decomposition, oxidation and precipitation. In this new body of photographs I attempt to explore the intersection of art, science and nature, chaos and climate, while trying to understand the tenuous equilibrium that these core elements play within the ecosystem, for reclamation and restoration of a planet in peril. This selection of photographs focus on a visual investigation of these elements within life's soup amidst the arid landscapes west of the 100th meridian contrasted alongside images of natural reclamation occurring in an abandoned battery at Fort Worden, Washington.
The Battery at Fort Worden
Fort Worden, on the Olympic Peninsula, was first established in the late 1890’s to defend Puget Sound and the surrounding areas. The Fort closed in 1953 and the battery, a great fortress constructed of steel and cement, apparently impervious to the most aggressive of attacks is no longer maintained. But today this battery is a “living laboratory” of nature’s work in reclamation. In The World Without Us, author Alan Weisman eloquently imagined the possibilities for the planet as it begins a self-healing process when humans are no longer present. I found the battery at Fort Worden a small example of these elements and processes at work unobstructed by human intervention.
I am not a scientist. I am a photographer in awe of the natural world, its processes and phenomena found within my sphere of experience. It is within this sphere of collaboration with biology, physics, and beyond, dovetailing with other ways of knowing (in my case, photography), that we are able to make sense of the world in which we live.
Fort Worden, on the Olympic Peninsula, was first established in the late 1890’s to defend Puget Sound and the surrounding areas. The Fort closed in 1953 and the battery, a great fortress constructed of steel and cement, apparently impervious to the most aggressive of attacks is no longer maintained. But today this battery is a “living laboratory” of nature’s work in reclamation. In The World Without Us, author Alan Weisman eloquently imagined the possibilities for the planet as it begins a self-healing process when humans are no longer present. I found the battery at Fort Worden a small example of these elements and processes at work unobstructed by human intervention.
I am not a scientist. I am a photographer in awe of the natural world, its processes and phenomena found within my sphere of experience. It is within this sphere of collaboration with biology, physics, and beyond, dovetailing with other ways of knowing (in my case, photography), that we are able to make sense of the world in which we live.
Cartography and the Cultural Terrain
In this body of work, I use photographic (film-based) images of landscapes and geological forms symbolic to me as an avenue to examine the historic impetus for westward expansion, colonialism and the search for natural resources. I attempt to create visual narratives that gain their ambiguity from the photographic techniques employed as well as the juxtaposition of the visual data from maps, artifacts and other text. This work has been an ongoing dialogue into the contradictory concepts surrounding landscape and visual representations of geography, and how these relate to cultural memory, identity and ecological issues. I am also interested in the ways that photographs have contributed to our understanding of this thing we call “place”.
I use these images in general to explore a range of ideas surrounding historic and contemporary westward expansion, but in particular as an examination of environmental factors related to mining and land use practices. I am increasingly interested in the motivations, sacrifices and belief systems behind colonialism that laid the groundwork of the American Dream and now plague us in our consumer based society.
In addition to the socio-cultural questions about the westward movement, I began to pay more attention to how this expansion affected land use practices, species habitat, ecological sustainability and other conflicting cultural and environmental values inherent within notions of the American West. These issues gave rise to the impetus to explore the balance within the relationship between the benevolent and malignant aspects of our intersection in nature and culture, while ultimately exploring the crossroads of science and art.
All images ©Deborah Ford.
I use these images in general to explore a range of ideas surrounding historic and contemporary westward expansion, but in particular as an examination of environmental factors related to mining and land use practices. I am increasingly interested in the motivations, sacrifices and belief systems behind colonialism that laid the groundwork of the American Dream and now plague us in our consumer based society.
In addition to the socio-cultural questions about the westward movement, I began to pay more attention to how this expansion affected land use practices, species habitat, ecological sustainability and other conflicting cultural and environmental values inherent within notions of the American West. These issues gave rise to the impetus to explore the balance within the relationship between the benevolent and malignant aspects of our intersection in nature and culture, while ultimately exploring the crossroads of science and art.
All images ©Deborah Ford.