Structural and conceptual permanence are common desires. We want to know that our homes are stable: that their foundations won’t collapse and crumble, that the people we care about will return the sentiment, and the ideas that we hold in high regard will stand up under scrutiny. Within the scope of our lifespan, this is mostly possible, and we’re able to compartmentalize disasters like flooding, continental drift, and even mass extinction as something far enough way that it won’t matter.
The coast areas of the Pacific Northwest are in the eye of a planet-wide storm. Calm beaches and quiet, sprawling forests exist at odds with civilizations such as the Quinault Nation, whose coastal existence is being threatened in many ways by global and climactic upheaval, much of which is exacerbated by the actions of humans.
I hope to visualize and express this idea using photographs that depict the gentle moments frozen in time that allow us to appreciate this Place as it currently exists, displaying wave action and metamorphic rock, while creating a narrative that helps to explain the underlying forces at work in those same pictures– the agents of constant change that are forced to coexist with.
Over the course of several days, I explored these themes and more with my clever, resourceful, and radical teammates Taren Molnar, Erik Godwin, and Jacob Mjaanes. Together we formed the Jivin’ Funk Band, and crafted a thorough survey of the immense variety of life, as well as the meaning and mood of this region that we experienced giving it shape as a place.
I want to create an understanding– both intellectual and empathetic– of nature and all of the interrelated forces that will allow humans to exist more respectfully, peacefully, and proactively.
