First Place Winner
From their project Life of the Land
Life of the Land tells of Earth’s evolution using a bird’s-eye perspective, a creation story, showcasing her fiery birth, transformation, and rebirth. It speaks of her beginnings, adaptation, resilience, and renewal, intersecting past and present to pose questions about our future. It becomes a microcosmic metaphor for our entire planet.
After relocating from Ohio to Hawai’i in 2007, I became intrigued by the volcanic eruptions on Hawai’i Island. In 2017, I took my first chartered helicopter flight over the active volcano field. Seeing ferns and ‘ohi’a trees thriving alongside molten lava was profound. I began to wonder which areas in Hawai’i would be impacted by climatic and environmental changes. I began to conduct aerial surveys documenting areas (rain forests, coastal areas, coral reefs, etc.) that researchers had identified as likely to be heavily impacted over the next 10 years and beyond. During this aerial work, the historic 200-year eruption began in Leilani Estates in 2018, altering everything. I witnessed Fissure 16 emerging in lush green pastures. At that moment, I realized that my photographic work was no longer just about climate change and sea level rise, but about the very existence of our planet. This urgency has driven this ongoing body of work.
With the rapid degradation of the climate and humanity’s reshaping of Earth’s geological and ecosystems, Life of the Land is an urgent, universal plea to reevaluate our role in our planet’s story. What legacy do we want to leave in the unfolding Anthropocene epoch?
