Animal Land

Alyssa Salomon’s newest series, “Animal Land” explores the nocturnal landscape and the feral beauty hidden within heavily developed places along the East Coast corridor. Over the course of the last year Salomon has served as an Artist-in-Residence at Virginia Commonwealth University Rice Rivers Center, collaborating with biologist Anne Wright, Rice’s Director of Environmental Outreach, to highlight the mysticism of the ecosystems within the Central Virginia section of the James River Watershed. Salomon transforms night-vision stills from digital infrared cameras into handmade van dyke prints, resulting in romantic visions of unseen environments. In this ongoing photographic project, Salomon invites viewers to reconsider familiar landscapes as being cohabited by humans and other species, presenting moments experienced by non-human animals that are often overlooked and would otherwise not occur in the presence of humans. 

Special thanks are due Anne Wright for allowing use of imagery collected from biodiversity research in James River Park System.  To Dr. Leonard Smock, Dr. Greg Garman, Anne Wright, Virginia Commonwealth University Rice Rivers Center, Science in the Park, Nathan Burrell and James River Park System, appreciation and admiration for innovative thinking, imaginative research, generosity, and spectacularly rich habitats.