Illuminations: Ferns of Colombia

Illuminations: Miradas a los Helechos en Colombia is a photographic project emerging from a research-based creative collaboration with Dr. Alejandra Vasco. As an artist affiliate at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), I researched primary source materials housed in the BRIT Library and Herbarium, including Dr. Vasco’s plant voucher specimens from her study of ferns in Colombia.  

The photographs capture chance visual juxtapositions I encountered when viewing collected ferns that had been pressed to dry between pages of Colombian newspapers before being transferred to archival herbarium sheets. I am entranced by how this common preservation method simultaneously captures both the cultural and natural histories of Colombia, and in this way, documents the present time of urgent plant discovery in an era of ecosystem disruption and social change. The dried ferns appear as ghostly silhouettes, emphasizing their environmental fragility and beauty as they float above the background of contemporaneous news.

Ferns were the dominant plants on Earth for millions of years before seed-bearing plants, developing remarkable adaptations to extreme conditions over time. Their resilience in the face of environmental change, stemming from their poorly explored genetic diversity, points to an optimistic future in which ecosystem rescue and revival may be possible.