We Have to Count the Clouds | 2011-Present

In the series We Have to Count the Clouds, photographs function as evidence of the ways we comprehend and mediate our relationship to both daily weather and our changing climate. In looking closely at the marks that are made–in the prediction of weather, the tracking of meteorological data, as well as on the landscape and human body itself­–the work presents visual remnants of often-invisible forces.

I seek out the permanent traces of what is sometimes hard to see, hard for some to believe. Wondering what proof looks like, I find these marks in weather stations, in the form of a graph or handwritten climatological record. The landscape shows evidence as well–cracked earth, flood debris, charred trees, erosion. Other indicators, immediate and often temporary, like sunburn or goose bumps, appear on the human body. Promising protection, the built environment of levees, floodgates, and sirens have become monuments to our vulnerability.