As anative of South Florida, the Everglades is an ecosystem that has shaped my own history. Inspired bythe early photographers of the American west, I have documented the flora andfauna of the Everglades and the surrounding natural areas using my large format8"x10" camera and the wet collodion process, a nineteenth centuryprocess requiring the image be exposed and developed on site. The collodionprocess renders light slowly and reveals the passing of time, a quality whichis essential to my work.
 
TheEverglades is the only ecological system of its kind. In the dedication ofEverglades National Park, president Harry S. Truman stated, “Here are no loftypeaks seeking the sky, no mighty glaciers or rushing streams wearing away theuplifted land. Here is land… serving not as the source of water but as the lastreceiver of it. To its natural abundance we owe the spectacular plant andanimal life that distinguishes the place from all others in our country.”
 
Todate, more than half of the Everglades have been repurposed for urban andagricultural use. "Freshwater flowing into the park is engineered,” readsthe brochure given to all visitors of Everglades National Park. “With the helpof pumps, floodgates, and retention ponds along the park's boundary, theEverglades is presently on life support, alive but diminished."  I hope to preserve an essence of theEverglades, a land we are rapidly losing without knowing the magnitude of ourloss.