Flood State is an ongoing series about weather anxieties and the precarious act of making a home on vulnerable land. In Louisiana, we face one of the highest rates of sea level rise in the world, compounded by the loss of 10,000 acres of coastal land each year. In addition, increasingly intense rainfall has begun to disrupt life with alarming frequency, flooding streets, cars, and homes without warning.
These portents of climate change leave me questioning the long-term viability of living in a place where we are at constant risk. I consider heading for higher ground. Yet extreme weather events are on the rise globally, begging the question: Is any place truly safe?
And so, I imagine a future where we adjust and adapt to survive the rising tides. Using photograms, a camera-less process as old as photography itself, I compress my ideas into simple images. I compose directly on polymer photogravure plates, layering small toys and commonplace objects on the light-sensitive surface to create imagined scenes. The exposed plates are then inked and printed on translucent Japanese Kozo paper, for an ephemeral effect that compliments their fluid subject matter. In this brave new water-world, the skies may be dark and stormy, but fear is tempered by hope.
