Lyonia: A Florida Upland
Photographed 2009 - 2011
This body of work was created at the Lyonia Preserve in Deltona, Florida. The Preserve is a 360-acre joint project of Volusia County's Land Acquisition and Management Division and the Volusia County School Board to restore and maintain a scrub habitat.
Although the conditions were harsh and challenging, there was a sense of artistry in the quietness and simplicity of this landscape.
This body of work was created at the Lyonia Preserve in Deltona, Florida. The Preserve is a 360-acre joint project of Volusia County's Land Acquisition and Management Division and the Volusia County School Board to restore and maintain a scrub habitat.
This portfolio is a prelude to another portfolio Fifteen Preludes to Lyonia. Lyonia and the few habitats like it left in Florida often are referred to as an "upland" (meaning high and dry) or a "scrub" habitat which is aptly named after the Scrub-Jay bird native to Florida and this habitat.
The images represented in this portfolio were shot during the same photographic exploration as the Fifteen Preludes to Lyonia portfolio. When I looked over the contact sheets and negatives after the shoot, it became apparent that it felt almost as though there were two bodies of work with duel personalities. The harsher more straightforward quality of this portfolio is contrasted by the romantic quality found in Fifteen Preludes to Lyonia. The images in Lyonia: A Florida Upland have a much more open and expansive feel to them and offer the viewer a broader sense of what is there.
“The sky was always present with no tree cover or water so the plants struggled to survive. The sand was very fine and pure white in color. The landscape was very fragile and harsh and tested my creative abilities like no other landscape. Photographing the area took physical endurance. With no place to hide from the sun, sweat dripped off my nose, ran down my legs, under my arms, and down my back. My clothes were drenched. Although the conditions were harsh and challenging, there was a sense of artistry in the quietness and simplicity of this landscape.
To get a true feeling of how I interpreted this landscape, view ‘Fifteen Preludes to Lyonia’ alongside of this portfolio.”