In the natural world, patterns repeat at the micro and macro level. I find both beauty and order in this repetition — a scrap of evidence that perhaps there is a grand design to existence. By discovering the visual connections between bits of natural life and the photographic documentation of memories and relationships placed under a microscope, I explore the possibility of connection between lived experience and the grand design.

Reminiscent of the 19th century alchemists, who studied nature in search of ways to purify and transform the spirit, I use a microscope and camera as my tools. The photographs are also printed in techniques invented in the 19th century: cyanotype and gum bichromate. These chemical processes alter color, value, and texture in response to the hand and will of the maker, transforming the final image. It does not escape me that perhaps my search has uncovered hidden unity…or perhaps my desire has created it where none truly exists. My process changes the photographic document, but does that make it less true?