My work is rooted in a fascination and reverence for the natural world, and guided by a desire to represent our environment without idealization. The reliance on idyllic, picturesque portrayals of nature throughout the Western landscape tradition has distanced viewers from the experience of natural environments, and created prescriptive views of where to look and what to value.

I use scale and detail to create a subtle sense of physical immersion and encourage prolonged observation, as I believe we must feel implicated in nature to value it beyond that of scenic commodity. I focus on less celebrated areas of wilderness, mostly found in the Midwest, to imply that no one part of nature is more important than another. An ecological understanding of nature as a set of competing systems with symbiotic interconnections, of which all have equal value, informs my decision that no single component in my photographs out-weigh another. All the elements contend for our attention. There is no hierarchy.