When our pursuit of wealth has finally spoiled the earth, what if we could start over, taking the fabric of all that we've known and loved and plant a new seed on a different planet? Would it even be wise to do so, knowing that we are just as likely to do it again? Perhaps it's best to just leave blueprints for the cosmos to figure it out for themselves.

The False Parting is an in-progress body of work of photographs made along the trails of the California Gold Rush. Through weaving images of natural and synthetic landscapes, I am seeking to further understand the ways we preserve, memorialize, and exploit our resources. The photo series explores a "pseudo-nature", turning images into a scavenger hunt of what is loved and lost, hoping that we might once again find our way.

Working in both medium and large film formats, I ultimately intend to present the images from this series in both exhibition and book format, with the exhibition functioning in a context that plays with ideas of scale and importance, reality and artificiality. The book will take on more narrative considerations throughout its sequencing, creating twists of expectation through juxtapositions of natural and artificial beauty, gradually conflating the two ideas such that both are put in question. The ideal sequencing and presentation of the work will implicate all of us in the ways that we use and take from our earth.

Attending the CENTER 2023 Portfolio Review would be an ideal time for this body of work to be seen, having now spent several years in development of this project. The opportunity to share and discuss the work at this time will be instrumental in providing feedback as I discern when to shift from the production stage of the work towards finalizing the sequence and preparing for exhibition/publishing.

All photos shot in medium and large formats. Prints are sized at 16x20.