Semblance is a photographic series that joins digital photography with mixed-media sculpture to explore the entropy of the natural world and the effects humans have on it. The work displays, or rather does not display, five animal carcasses that were discarded or dumped at the Black Hill Wildlife Management Area near Ephraim, Utah.

By physically editing and removing any evidence of what remains of each body, Semblance suggests a significance to the negative space within the photographs; gaps where carcasses once lay, lifeless, but not void of life. Inevitably the land takes hold, covers, alters, and fills in. The earth serves as a placeholder for the dead as it references the inescapable transformation of death and decay to life and renewal.

As a result, the work lives in both the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional representation of the land, each translating and referencing the land with their unique characteristics. The photographs are a form of evidence, proving the carcasses’ existence. On the other hand, the grasses and earth act as camouflage, both hiding and eventually reclaiming that existence.

Removing the photographic representation of the animal carcasses in the photographs also censors their presence, referencing a common attitude towards these animals in life, their carcasses in death, and the environment as a whole. In doing so, Semblance draws attention to our conscious and unconscious act of censoring the ugly, damaged, and spoiled parts of our reality.

Ultimately, Semblance is an investigation of human awareness of the natural world and reflects on the ways in which humans consider the interconnectedness between us and our natural environment – or not.

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