Charlotte Cox

Portland, Oregon

Through the force of white supremacy thousands of well developed and rich cultures were dehumanized because of their sacred relationship with nature. Through colonization, that kinship with nature was broken and outlawed. In the United States, the national park system was created by eugenic racists who built the parks by forced removal of Indigenous tribes. Segregation was a tool used to make the parks white only until 1945. What remains is inaccessibility and fear.

It took me too long to understand the ramifications of this history because I’m white and I’d never experienced nature with fear. My practice is to use my experiences to create a reaccess point to nature. To remind the viewer that nature is safe. That it’s home.

I use multiple exposures to share the most I can of my memory, carrying the understanding of why I feel safe to explore. Additionally, I control the exposure time through mechanical translation to highlight the magical feeling freedom in nature creates.

All multiple and double exposures are shot in camera, on medium format film.