Natural Response (2026)

Humans are not wired to consume the quantity of information available to us today. Our senses are flooded with accounts of events beyond our control, forcing our emotions to respond and disengaging us from the actual lives we lead. In this environment, I find it crucial to return to our innate relationship with nature. Similarly, as photography ventures further into the digital, I am inclined to work in a manual, analog fashion. As such, I turn to film photography, newspaper clippings, and my own handwriting to create a collage series that illustrates the basic human emotions—hopelessness, awe, stress, tranquility—that have sporadically dominated my mind in recent months. The collages take place upon large-scale prints taken in the awe-inspiring Bryce Canyon, a setting that reminded me of the insignificance of man in relation to the planet we inhabit, while the smaller, monochromatic prints are more intimate natural instances. Handwriting and newspaper clippings still manage to convey news from afar, albeit in a less intelligible manner. I believe that stepping back, whether to remember our place among nature or to return to physical creative practice, is vital to retaining our humanity as our new world threatens to leave it behind.