Global climate change contributes to the major restructuring of biodiversity on the planet, altering entire ecological communities down to the very color and shape of organisms. These butterflies and moths represent just a handful of species that will be impacted by an evolving environment. Referencing the early photographic cyanotype process employed by Anna Atkins as a lens for scientific study in her book Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions c.1853, we swapped water for melting ice and snow to process and tone these prints as a metaphor for climate change in this series; exploring how the stochasticity of water changing from solid to liquid reflects our shared ecological uncertainty on a warming planet. The unpredictability of color and tone, and the patience required to make each print by watching ice melt on paper over indeterminate amounts of time also lent themselves to this climate impact study, resulting in each print being completely unique and a reflection of an evolving and weathered environment.

- Vaughn Shirey + Jason Edward Tucker

In 2024, I joined The Arctic Circle Residency’s summer voyage to continue these site-specific prints. During the three week expedition, I lived aboard The Antigua, a specially outfitted Barquentine tall ship, which sailed out of Longyearbyen through the high-Arctic Svalbard Archipelago and the Arctic Ocean.