Between 2003 and 2010, I reconnected with my friend and fellow photographer Diane Farris when we discovered that our homes in Wisconsin (me) and Florida (Diane) had an unexpected and powerful link: we dwell at opposite ends of a Sandhill crane migration route. The cranes had become an important presence in each of our lives and photographic work. With astonishment, we learned that we were photographing the same group of cranes, thanks to information gleaned from bands on the cranes’ legs. My photographic work led to the fabrication of large collages which used handmade Japanese paper and silver gelatin photographs. Each of the six large pieces focused on the intersection—sometimes joyful, sometimes fatal—of the human and crane worlds. Diane’s surreal color digital photographs took a poetic and metaphorical turn. Together we fabricated many eight inch square pieces which explored our joint experience of artistic connection and migration. The resulting exhibits of “Cranes and Conversations” traveled to several locations.
Sandhill Crane Collages
