Deep Memory is an ongoing process-based work exploring geologic and human memory, and our relationship to our place within deep time.

 

Cameras can instantly take a dozen or more photos and are readily available through our phones and computers. With the rush of life and the urge to capture memories rather than experience them, we often miss the simple moments - how the light shifts through the day, the sound of the water hitting a rocky shore and flowing back into the lake, or even how far a snail can travel when you're sitting still.

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Using a hand-built pinhole camera, I capture Lake Superior’s striking geologic structures and landscapes. This analogue method challenges the convenience of instant photography by demanding presence and encouraging reflection on what it means to collect images versus truly experiencing a moment.

Each photo from Deep Memory required patience and time to expose, ranging from 15 seconds to 15 minutes, but never instant. With each second that passes, this process creates space for stillness, inviting a deeper awareness of the surrounding geologic structures, their history, and our place within their vast timescale.

 

The three locations visited, Katherine Cove, Sandy Beach, and Sawpit Bay, connect my experience growing up and making memories along Lake Superior with the geologic memory recorded in the layers and lines of the rocks, like pages of a book we’re only beginning to read.