Ofrendas

My work has long been focused on ecological concerns, especially concern for non-human animals. It seems self-evident that environmentalism and social justice must include the other animals who share our planet. This series is my offering to the many animals left for dead on the roads where I travel, often near the lake where I walk every day. Mostly, they are killed by cars but also by hunters, fishermen, and sometimes out of sheer cruelty. Their deaths are unnatural and violent. I’ve always felt it was deeply wrong to leave their bodies on the road for further violence. For a long time all I could think to do was to photograph them and whenever possible move them off the road. Ofrendas is my way of remembering these innocent animals in a lovelier context. The works are small and quiet and uninvasive. They are made with materials that are ecologically as harmless as possible: pigment prints of the animals I photograph on rag paper embellished mostly with water-based pigments, free of animal products.