SUN, SILVER, RESIDUE

Sun, Silver, and Residue functions as a quasi-scientific visual archive of the winter ecosystem surrounding Piney Creek in Banner, Wyoming. Using the cameraless technique of lumen printing, I document five interrelated domains of environmental presence: geology, hydrology, flora, fauna, and human inhabitation. Through direct exposure of silver gelatin paper to sunlight and collected specimens, the landscape becomes both subject and collaborator. The resulting works form a typological inventory that traces how material, biological, and human systems intersect through light, time, and residue.

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Geology. This chapter records the region’s geological substrate through stone fragments, local scoria containing coal residue, sandstone, sand, and mineral debris. These materials register deep time and tectonic history, producing dense tonal fields and granular textures that speak to sedimentation, pressure, and erosion.

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Hydrology. Melted ice and snow from Piney Creek are used to capture the phase transitions and fluid dynamics of water. As moisture evaporates and migrates across the paper surface, it leaves shifting mineral deposits and soft gradients that visualize seasonal cycles and climatic instability.

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Flora. Dormant and dried plant materials—including cottonwood leaves, Indian ricegrass, pine cones, bark, cattails, twigs, seed pods, and moss—document botanical resilience during winter suspension. These prints emphasize fragility, seasonal latency, and the quiet persistence of vegetal life.

 

Fauna. This section registers animal presence through residual traces such as deer and horse droppings, turkey feathers, and skeletal fragments. Rather than depicting animals directly, the work records patterns of movement, feeding, and decay, situating nonhuman life within cycles of use and disappearance.

 

Human Inhabitation. Traces of domestic labor and everyday maintenance—soap bars, scouring pads, fly swatters, cleaning agents, and hand tools—situate human activity within the broader ecological system. These objects reveal how habitation, consumption, and care are materially embedded in the landscape.