KATE BREAKEY | Leopard Moth, 2024

Leopard Moth, from the series Squadron.

I am awestruck by the natural world, fascinated by the strange beauty and diversity of living things and the marvelous ways they have evolved to survive. Evolution is staggeringly inventive: octopus and chameleon can change the color of their skin to hide. Other creatures are patterned —spotted or striped, to be hard to see—or have bold markings to advertise to predators they are poisonous or venomous. But few creatures can evolve to adapt fast enough to survive what is currently happening to this planet, and so we are entering a phase called the Sixth Mass Extinction, or the Anthropocene extinction. Every day 72 species become extinct, approximately three per hour. Gone forever. Populations of bats, birds, bees, butterflies and moths are in sharp decline worldwide because of the ubiquitous use of pesticides, habitat destruction and climate change. Since all these little creatures are pollinators, without them, plants and many crops can’t propagate. The severe long- term consequences of this to sustainable food production will affect human health and survival. We have failed to understand and respect that we are part of something larger, and this will doom us also. I made larger-than-life images of fragile little creatures out of my own sense of wonder and hope. To pay attention to all the beautiful details—to lovingly render their scales or feathers is my way to care, to find redemption in an uncaring world.

I made larger-than-life images of fragile little creatures out of my own sense of wonder and hope. To pay attention to all the beautiful details—to lovingly render their scales or feathers is my way to care, to find redemption in an uncaring world.

BIO

Kate Breakey is internationally known for her large-scale, richly hand-colored photographs including her acclaimed series of luminous portraits of birds, flowers and animals in a series called Small Deaths published in 2001 by University of Texas Press. Her other monographs include, Painted Light, University of Texas in 2010, a career retrospective that encompasses a quarter century of prolific image making. Her collection of photograms, entitled 'Las Sombras / The Shadows' was published by University of Texas Press in October 2012. This series is a continuation of her lifetime investigation of the natural world which in her own words is ‘brimming with fantastic mysterious beautiful things’. Since 1980 her work has appeared in more than 120 one-person exhibitions and in over 60 group exhibitions. A native of South Australia, Breakey moved to Austin, Texas in 1988. She completed a Master of Fine Art degree at the University of Texas in 1991 where she also taught photography in the Department of Art and Art History until 1997. Her collections include the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, The Australian National Gallery, The Wittliff collections, and the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts, as well as various private collections. She has resided in Tucson, Arizona for 23 years. She regularly teaches workshops nationally and internationally.