Envisioning Habitat Sereis

In my ongoing series Envisioning Habitat, I look beyond the everyday world and create a new reality shaped from the exquisite and sublime beauty of nature. The images in the Envisioning Habitat series were photographed in the wild: the flamingo in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, the great blue herons in the Viera Wetlands and J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island in Florida and the saddle-billed storks in the Maasai Mara, Kenya. When working in the field to photograph birds and landscapes and then later in my studio to select and combine the related imagery to include in my final images, I take creative liberties by commingling the bird, their scale and their fantasy environments. I imagine the essence of paradise and weave a visual narrative echoing the Hudson River Valley artists who blended multiple scenes from field notes and memory to create their idealized, romantic and emotional paintings. Examples of how my images turn into fantasy are apparent when juxtaposing roseate spoonbills next to ocean waves rather than the calm, shallow wetlands of Florida or the surreal image of a great egret in Death Valley. Passion, preservation and a life in harmony with nature are some of the reasons I am a photographer. My hope is the viewer will connect with those ideals through my images, artwork and be mindful of the fragility and beauty of life.

Santa Barbara photographic artist Cheryl Medow creates images that entice the viewer to enter the natural world and envision her wild birds, in imaginary and real environments. Using classical and contemporary tools, Medow layers her photographs, weaving them together to create visual narratives.