2013 Ebb & Flow Resident Isabelle Hayeur has created Underworlds, focusing on polluted and endangered waterways.

During her residency at A Studio in the Woods, Hayeur spent six weeks photographing local bayous, lakes, and the Mississippi River. Her efforts only confirm much of what we have known for years: that our waterways are in no small danger, that human intervention and control has harmed them as much as it has helped, and that—particularly with respect to the wetlands—the resources devoted to restoring them pale in comparison to those we pour into maintaining the industrial infrastructure that poisons them. Nevertheless, in revealing the submarine habitats that surround us and support life in this region, Hayeur offers a much-needed window not just onto the habitats themselves, but onto our varied forms of inattention that engender their neglect. These photographs act as their own thermocline, inviting us to consider what of our own mental riverbeds might need intervention against this political and environmental threat. In this sense, they might be best termed photoclines, compelling a physical shift in our attention that awakens and enlivens us, and restores our sense of connection with the land. Click here to read the full article.