Days of Plenty: An Archive of Abundance

Speaking through a photographic history, this project compiles hundreds of appropriated images into collage works reflecting on human relationship with the living world. At a time when a re-framing of this relationship is urgently called for, these often disturbing works employ extraction as metaphor for the wider story of our attempts of dominion over the natural world. Emerging from my family’s history as colonial settlers working in extractive industries in British Columbia from 1887 through to today, and continuing with photographs collected from around the world, I intend to engage with questions around new paths of relation with the other-than-human. - D.E. Institutional sources of archival photographs include: The Smithsonian Institute National Library of Austria McCord Stewart Museum Royal BC Museum and Archives US Library of Congress Cortes Island Museum Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library North Dakota Archives Cal Poly Humboldt Library Special Collections Provincial Archives of Alberta Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery American Museum of Natural History Library Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan Museum of History and Industry Glenbow Museum University of Calgary Texas State Library The Petroleum Museum University of Southern California Provincial Archives of Alberta Alaska State Library Hundreds of other photographs are in my private collection, drawn from family archives, auction, vintage/collectibles merchants, and other sources. *** This project is in-process with many new works being added over the next few months. For an up-to-date collection please contact me directly.***