Since 2007, I’ve been creating a photographic archive depicting North America’s rich trove of wild edible flora. By employing a system that makes it easy to identify both the plant and its edible parts, the images function as reliable guides for foraging.

Beyond functionality, I try to construct images that operate on multiple levels theoretically and perceptually. Upon longer viewing the botanicals begin to transcend the initial appearance of scientific illustration – they writhe and pulsate trying to communicate with you about their edible parts while hovering over an infinite black expanse. To achieve a layered aesthetic the photographs are meticulously crafted and constructed. I photograph multiple specimens of the same plant and combine the best elements from each to create an archetypal rendering. By judiciously rearranging, scaling, and warping I can vivify the plant and turn the ground into infinite space.

This work offers a dose of something palliative for the ills of alienation – a sense of connection to a certain place and a certain ecosystem. With this goal in mind, I plan on continuing the survey until I’ve amassed an expansive enough cross-section of the botanical life on the continent to mount biome-specific exhibitions anywhere within the continental United States. I hope the photographic survey can serve as a historical archive during an era of extreme change, and provide viewers all over the country an opportunity to feel a type of numinous bond with their landscapes that will encourage health, engender wonder, help identify free food, and most importantly, inspire greater concern for environmental issues..

Echinacea

Ground Cherry

Oxeyedaisy

Plantain

Sheepsorrel

Sunflower

Marsh Mallow

Mayapple

Solomonsseal

Wapato