A Photographic Survey of the American Yard

My mother tells me I used to lie on my stomach and watch ants crawling through the grass for hours. I remember catching June bugs off of her wild roses in a Styrofoam cup, and finding box turtles in the gravel pit near our house. I still love hearing the cicadas come out in summer, getting tobacco juice from a grasshopper on my fingers, and catching lightning bugs in a pickle jar. The world is full of intricate, remarkable forms, but we take for granted our place in nature, trading sensitivity to our surroundings for greater productivity and progress. The images in this series are a typological study of the plants, animals, and insects I come across in my daily life and travels, captured with my iPhone; the tool seems fitting, serving as a way to bridge my distracted life and my love of science and nature.