"Feather Boa Study 27"Feather Boa Study 27Oriana Poindexter
Media: Silver Gelatin Print
Size: 11" x 14"
Framed: 14" x 17"
Price: $1000
DESCRIPTION:
Lumen photogram created with feather boa kelp (Egregia menziesii) collected by the artist while freediving off Descanso Beach, Catalina Island on April 15, 2025.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Field Notes brings together work created along two stretches of the Pacific Coast - from the kelp forests of Catalina Island to the wild shorelines of the Oregon Coast. Each image is created in sunlight, a record of the shadow of a specimen in light-sensitive chemistry. These prints function as visual field notes, each one documenting a unique individual, with notes on species, morphology, size, location, and date.
The physicality of this process is tactile and meditative. Seeking, diving, and collecting is followed by arranging the specimens on paper, exposing them in sunlight, and washing the final print in water. Most of the prints document seaweeds at life-size, using camera-less historic and experimental photographic processes.
This work is the result of years spent freediving in Catalina's kelp forests, and a summer immersed in Oregon's coastal ecosystems. It reflects a deep interest in scientific collections and the power of specimens to serve as anchors for memory and meaning. Artists and scientists alike collect, interpret, and share knowledge of the living world, and it is through these practices of careful observation that we come to understand the places we love.
Oriana Poindexter
Field Notes brings together work created along two stretches of the Pacific Coast - from the kelp forests of Catalina Island to the wild shorelines of the Oregon Coast. Each image is created in sunlight, a record of the shadow of a specimen in light-sensitive chemistry. These prints function as visual field notes, each one documenting a unique individual, with notes on species, morphology, size, location, and date.
The physicality of this process is tactile and meditative. Seeking, diving, and collecting is followed by arranging the specimens on paper, exposing them in sunlight, and washing the final print in water. Most of the prints document seaweeds at life-size, using camera-less historic and experimental photographic processes.
This work is the result of years spent freediving in Catalina's kelp forests, and a summer immersed in Oregon's coastal ecosystems. It reflects a deep interest in scientific collections and the power of specimens to serve as anchors for memory and meaning. Artists and scientists alike collect, interpret, and share knowledge of the living world, and it is through these practices of careful observation that we come to understand the places we love.
Oriana Poindexter
© The Photographer's Eye: A Creative Collective