Artist Statement & Notes

david rogers

I currently live on the 35th floor of a high-rise in the concrete jungle that surrounds New York City. But I grew up in a world of trees, streams, swamps, and wildlife. I felt and appeared wild as a kid tromping through the woods. I was young when my family moved out of Hartford to a semi-rural community to be closer to my grandparents. When I was twelve I began working on a small family farm picking strawberries and vegetables to earn money. I did that for the following three summers until I could get a legal job. My childhood life and connection to the natural world feels distant, but I still prioritize heading outdoors and into the backcountry.

I often use photography and filmmaking to explore nature's beauty and mysteries more deeply. There are many reasons I was drawn to action figure photography for this project. I wanted the challenge of capturing the immense scope and scale of nature. I didn’t succeed, but I enjoyed trying. Part of my awe of the natural world happens at such a tiny level that it often gets overlooked as people trudge down a trail. Action figures allow for an exploration of some of nature’s microcosmic wonders. I am somewhat obsessed, for example, with the color, texture, and structure of the various kinds of moss that create a world unto themselves.

I was also drawn to action figure photography to keep things fun. But as a bi-racial, Black man, it's not all fun. I need to be aware of more than the potential dangers that exist in nature. On my last solo backcountry trip to northern Maine, I drove by homes with confederate flags and was reminded that there is never a full escape, at least not at the moment.

I thought about the viral social media moment of thousands of women answering the question: would you rather be alone in the woods with a bear or an unknown man. The bear came out on top as less scary and unpredictable, which reminded me of the double burden women of color experience when they head outdoors. Rahawa Haile, an Eritrean-American writer, explores this dynamic and much more in her writing “How Black Books Lit My Way Along The Appalachian Trail”. She writes about how so many of the white hikers she spoke to were oblivious to the confederate flags along the landscape and she makes explicit the history of violence against the black body and systemic racism as a challenge to heading outdoors.

It takes something extra for Black and Brown people to get outdoors, but make no mistake - we are out there. And beyond the two dimensional tropes of Native Americans' connection to the earth, the relationships of people of color to the natural world get little attention. I am inspired by people who are revisiting history with fresh perspectives.

I spent sometime with my family on Maryland's Eastern Shore and we visited the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitors Center. Tubman's success in freeing people from slavery along the Underground Railroad was bolstered by her deep understanding of the tides, seasons, flora, fauna and how to use the stars to navigate at night. This knowledge was essential to safely traveling great distances through the woods, marshes, and waterways to freedom.

OuterAfro is about liberation in so many ways, and a reminder of our multiplicity: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.

It could have been easy to be heavy-handed with this project. We live in a moment when human choices and actions are devastating the planet. We are losing unknown numbers of species to extinction, and we don't seem to understand that we are also on the endangered species list. I try and find small ways to raise the visibility of what we are losing.

But this is also a time when there are a range of other existential threats: growing authoritarianism, hyper-polarization, omnipresent disinformation, intense racism and xenophobia... Given the greater planetary context, I draw guidance from the words of John Francis , a Black environmentalist, who once took a 17 year vow of silence to bring attention to critical social issues. He said:

“We are the environment and how we treat each other is really how we treat the environment.”

Humanity needs to be so much better. Kindness and respect for the Earth and each other is fundamental to our future. They go hand in hand.

Thanks for giving this some attention.

david rogers

Mt. Adams, WA - timelapse of stars and moonrise

“Sublime silence surrounds me. I have walked to the top of the hill, plopped myself down to watch the world around me. I have no fear here, in this world of trees, weeds, and growing things. This is the world I was born into: a world of wild things. In it, the wilderness in me speaks. I am wild."

- bell hooks (from Appalachian Elegy)

Process Notes:

Photographs were taken in the wild. I haven't dropped in artificial landscape features in post-production. That said, working with action figures does limit possibilities, and in one obvious occasion, I layered my images to address the concept. But if the photo involves a fjordic glacier, for example, I was on the boat, thick with insulation, wind, and rain gear. I laid down in alpine snow pack, climbed mountains, and waded into rivers and ponds in the course of this project. And yes, that is a live ladybug who agreed to pose.

When capturing and editing photos, I tried to resist the temptation to clean and remove elements that could be thought of as "distracting" or "less than perfect". The essence of nature is unmanicured, wild, often rough and messy. It feels strange to create a hyper-retouched look when photographing nature. Admittedly, I would have been able to create more of a sense of awe if I fully embraced the possibilities of digital image editing, but it just didn't feel right.

Lastly, it's worth acknowledging that there were a range of the attempted photos and ideas that were ultimately too complicated for the conditions, my skillset, or gear. I learned a lot about my limitations and will be adding to this website as I circle back on some must have ideas.