Laurie Beck Peterson
My practice unfolds at the intersection of plant life, light, and time, where biological processes become both medium and collaborator. I work with living systems not as subjects to be represented, but as active participants whose internal chemistries, metabolic rhythms, and responses to environmental conditions shape the work as it emerges.
Using historical and plant-based photographic processes, I approach image-making as a form of slow observation and material inquiry. Sunlight functions as both energy source and exposure mechanism, activating photochemical reactions while sustaining photosynthesis. Leaves, wood, and plant-derived solutions act simultaneously as substrate, reagent, and archive, recording subtle shifts in physiology, weather, and duration rather than fixed moments.
Rooted in slowness, impermanence, and care, my practice frames art making as a form of ecological inquiry. The resulting works exist as fragile negotiations between human intention and living systems, asking what it means to make images with life rather than from it.

