Painted Landscape

Turkey Tails | 8 feet x 2 feet | 27 photographs

My pursuit of landscape photography began as a pursuit for timeless, iconic images that depicted nature as steadfast. In the years since, my work has evolved to shatter that illusion. As the cascading effects of climate change impact ecosystems locally and globally, no landscape is immune from change.

Because the environmental issues they represent are urgent, the images must be large. To achieve this, I photograph landscapes in a grid-like pattern using a telephoto prime lens, stitching them together one photo at a time over many rows and columns. Combinations of slow shutter speed and camera movement are used to create photographs with brushstroke-like qualities that range from impressionistic to abstract. This process is repeated multiple times over several hours, days and occasionally seasons to capture light and weather changes from the same location. Each piece combines dozens or hundreds of individual photographs, which are blended together in Photoshop using layer masks and brush tools to apply opacity at various percentages.

The work adheres to an ethical approach shaped by my career in visual journalism. All visual effects are created in-camera. Photoshop is never used to remove or add content, to move the placement of content within a landscape, or to exaggerate visual effects. Each piece depicts the many realities of a landscape over time. As a body of work, they together represent the uncertain future of all landscapes in a rapidly changing world.

American Beech | 14 feet x 8 feet | 743 photographs
Annular Eclipse | 12 feet x 12 feet | 254 photographs
Panamint | 4 feet x 3 feet | 32 photographs
Offshore | 5 feet x 3 feet | 104 photographs
Koroyanitu | 5 feet by 4 feet | 46 photographs
Boulder Fresco | 5 feet x 3 feet | 46 photographs
Sago Poison | 3 feet x 4 feet | 42 photographs
Forest Sage | 3 feet x 4 feet | 37 photographs
Valley of the Gods | 3 feet x 6 feet | 26 photographs