Dead Creek Wildlife Area — so called because its network of marshy ponds dries up or goes “dead” in summer. — is a haven for migrating birds in Addison, Vermont. Too wet for farming and too shallow as a reliable waterway, the protected area is pristine and mostly off limits to the public. Snow Geese, Short-eared Owls, and Bald Eagles are the big draw,  but I bring my camera for subtler moments — a rippling circle on the water when a turtle feeds just below the twilit surface, or a shimmer of light when the silk of a milkweed catches the morning sun.

There is something about the forgotten feeling of the Dead Creek landscape that reminds me of Japanese ink painting. — an ancient art form depicting natural subjects in black ink, with washes of gray, on white paper. The style is minimalist and captures the essence of the thing — its fleeting presence — in a few brush strokes. An abundance of negative space invites the viewer to enter the atmosphere surrounding a branch, a bird, or stalk of grass. With its emphasis on light, dark, and emptiness, the genre borders on abstraction, but not with objective distance. or coldness. Ink painting is a deeply subjective art.

I made these images in 2025 in the same spirit — as monochromatic expressions of essence, absence, and mood. The title of the series comes from a quote by Guillermo del Toro: “Presence is fleeting. Absence is eternal.”