The Ghost Forest series is an ongoing photographic documentation begun in the summer of 2022. Depicting the emergence of ghost forests along the mid-Atlantic coasts, particularly in the DelMarVa area. When salt water is pushed inland into freshwater ecosystems due to storms, rising sea level, and climate change, the salinity of the soil becomes too high. The Atlantic White Cedar is particularly susceptible to the high salinity, and is the first species to die.  The skeletal white trunks standing against lush landscape are sounding the alarm of a changing climate. This stark contrast is both beautiful and disconcerting, creating visual and literal gaps in the density of the forest. In the "Ghost Forest" series, the image persists in its reproduction, while the subjects themselves are deteriorating into near disappearance. Can experiences and perceptions become fabrications or by products of photography?

"Threshold" is a photographic project documenting the atmospheric phenomenom of a temperature inversion over the ocean or other large body of water. The horizon line becomes obscured, resulting in a a temporary state of feeling unmoored. This is a liminal space, neither completely land or sea, air or water. It is an absence of footing, and a feeling of disorientation. 

Collaborative project between Sherry Insley and Mitch Maltese. Untethered is a sound and image installation, revisiting images from Threshold, and replacing the disappearing  visual information with sound. Using low frequencies, reverberations and higher pitched tones, the aim is to influence the viewer's sensory response to the images. Projected on a vertically hung screen, the sound and images slowly change and evolve while viewing. 

Photographic series shot at Lake Montebello and surrounding areas. Temperature inversions create layers of dense mist over large bodies of water or open fields. Obscuring the horizon line and landscape. The usually busy environment is muffled and rendered still in these temporarily quiet moments. 

Through alternative processes such as lumen printing, photograms, cyanotypes and anthotypes I am working with the physicality of photography. What does it mean to use a tool that documents and preserves, to create images that intentionally disappear? Conversely, if the photograph lasts longer than the subject, is it that image that is  committed to memory rather than the subject itself? Can reflections and experiences become fabrications or by products of photography? Utilizing family photographs and found objects these photographic images serve as witness and documents of record, as well as manipulate and influence time. Lumen printing is a camera-less and chemical free image making process with traditional black and white darkroom paper.  Objects or layers of negatives and transparencies are used to create the composition, and the changes in color occur from the age of the expired papers, the exposure length and the the temperature. 

 My work with historical alternative processes such as lumen printing and anthotypes, further examines the relationship of photographic images with time and impermanence. The prints cannot be fixed with traditional darkroom chemistry, which is decidedly not environmentally friendly, and will fade away in ambient light. In the Ebb project, I collect seaweed, plant material, and found objects from the areas near ghost forests. I contact print onto photographic paper leaving the translucent silhouettes, and attempt to stabilize the images with saltwater. Here salt water is an agent of preservation rather than destruction.

Reverberate is an experimentation in alternative processes in the darkroom. Film and cameraless, these images are created with only light, water and motion. The unique lines and patterns in the images appear as the water vibrates during exposure. Processed in traditional darkroom chemistry and one of a kind, these images are visual representations of sound.