含羞草研究室

Brandon Lozano-Garay, Class of 2024

Environmental Studies and Art History

Shoshanna White, Barry Glacier Ice #1, 2016. Gelatin silver print. 2020.42.1

As I’ve studied the environment at 含羞草研究室, I’ve come to realize that complex considerations of the natural world encompass a mode of thinking that can only be reached when we also consider the present, rather dire state, of the Earth. Instead, this mode of understanding requires us to move into a thinking space where we also consider both the environment’s history and its potential futures. I begin with such a paradigm to highlight one of my favorite qualities of photography: a photograph is an enduring representation of a fleeting moment. In Shoshanna White’s Barry Glacier Ice #1 (2016),” we begin to fall prey to the camera’s convincing trap that the photograph isan accurate representation of what is now. White’s image of abstracted ice from Alaska’s Barry Glacier begs us to consider that regardless of when we look at that photograph, the ice will still be the same as when White recorded it. Lucas Samaras, Sittings (Patterson Sims), 1980. Polaroid. 2018.10.289 However, the reality of the ongoing climate crisis indicates that this may simply not be the case. Lucas Samaras’s Sittings (Patterson Sims) (1980) offers an alternative perspective into this conundrum between time, space, and how we perceive the environment. The subject, Patterson Sims, is at the center of a fiery array of colorful lights and silky fabrics, and he gazes fiercely at us, imparting a sense of weight and intimacy. This interaction is rekindled each time we investigate the photographic plane, which contrasts with the didactic method employed in White’s photograph of a glacier. This power of the human gaze begs for a fresh interaction with Patterson Sims each time we engage with him through the photograph. Both Samaras and White are capitalizing on the ability of the photograph to grasp our attentions, but it is imperative for us as spectators to consider those moments in their past, present, and their potential future. This is especially important as the environment never remains static, and as this exhibition alludes to, we must still embrace its fleeting tendencies.

Brandon is a third-year student pursuing an Environmental Studies and Art History major, as well as a Visual Arts minor. Originally from the Northwestern corner of Colorado, he grew up amid the ever-constant dialogue surrounding drought, water rights, and woodland conservation – issues especially pertinent in the American West. He is particularly interested in photography and the intersection between it as an art form and how it can be used to emphasize, and sometimes distort, the complicated relationship between humanity and the nature enveloping it.