earth people
An ongoing project exploring the interconnected relationships we have with our bodies and with nature.
What can we learn when we compare how we treat ourselves with how we treat the planet? How does spending time outside impact how we feel about, how we feel in, our bodies?
35 mm film photography.
Lika. September 2023.
New Forest, Flathead Forest. 2022 & 2023.
M. May 2023.
methodology
Through this project, I hope to utilize various methods of subject photography. Some images in this gallery were made during intentional photoshoots, some were snapped without the subject's awareness. I find value in both approaches. With an unaware subject, I may be able to capture a truly personal moment between themselves, their body, their nature. Conversely, the awareness and forethought of a photoshoot in which the goal is to represent and capture this complex relationship may allow the subject to engage deeply and intentionally with the matter at hand. These images would then reflect a conscious side of their experience, equally as riveting.
I intend to include select self portraits within the project, reflecting on how my own relationship to my body and to the earth is impacted throughout the creation of these images. Initial images which I made to explore my experience of my body in nature often feature me in a small, tight, closed position, near the ground, with my face not visible in the frame. The images convey remnants of shame. I feel a similarity in the shame of having mistreating my body as I do to the shame of contributing to ecological destruction on our planet, even through this mode of artistic exploration.
Ouch.
Spain, Montana. 2023
Isabelle. September 2023.
The Earth, For Scale.
England, Montana, Utah, Spain. 2022 & 2023.
To be minuscule and yet wield such power.
Spain, Montana. 2023.
Elias. 2023.
This idea, thus far, has been expressed as a retrospective curation. As I now move to create images to contribute to this project, I want to incorporate interview elements into my time photographing subjects. Ideally during, or at least surrounding the time of creating the images, I want to engage subjects on the topic of their relationship to their body and to nature through deep listening and thoughtful questions (not a pre-made prepared interview "script"). I expect that the discussions may deepen the experience and lead to the creation of images which may not otherwise come to be. Perhaps elements of the interview/conversations will work their way into the project as well.
Lac de Neuchâtel, Atlantic Ocean, North Sea. 2022.
Rocky Mountain Snooze.
Glacier National Park, 2020.
a thank you to each subject, friend or stranger.
thank you to the many peoples who steward the land these images were made from.
thank you for your time and attention.
-Charlotte.