Rooted in curiosity, Melinda Hurst Frye’s photographs intertwine science and art to explore partnerships and hint at the invisible.
Their beginnings are silent as their threads move through the soil beneath the surface. Stretching, seeking, and speaking a language that I do not hear. The cycle calls for a union with time, nearby roots, and the decay of the forest floor. As their fruits emerge, they will exhale their spores into the air to perform the process once more.
In the summer of 2020, I moved with my family to my childhood home, adjacent to Saint Edward State Park, outside of Seattle, Washington. I walk the same trails I explored as a child, but now with my children. Together, we forage, greet the ferns, and slow down to watch the changing light and smell the earth. We observe the shifting seasons, from mushrooms bursting on fallen logs to the forest’s simultaneous growth and decay. My photographs aim to capture the evolving ecology along the trail I’ve walked throughout my life—a trail that rises and falls with the seasons and nourishes the soil that grows the wonder that surrounds our family. The subjects in these photographs were found near this trail and brought into my studio to rest on a flatbed scanner and release their spores, sometimes over days.
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Rooted in curiosity, my work intertwines science and art to explore partnerships and hint at the invisible. Using the scanner as a camera, I hope to photograph what isn’t readily seen: the soil beneath the surface, the activities of the night, and how time might be perceived through the lens of the soil. The scanner’s slow, deliberate process allows me to observe with intent, contrasting with my usual frenetic pace. Each scan takes minutes to complete, requiring physical stillness and resulting in highly detailed images that reveal small surprises, natural patterns, and hidden exoskeletons. As the spores release and settle on the scanner glass, they visually map their path, echoing the entangled relationship of the understory’s ecology.
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In our warming climate, the fruiting bodies provide evidence of the slow churning regeneration within the soil that takes the forest apart so it may become again.
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About the Artist
Melinda Hurst Frye photographically celebrates the ecology of the forest floor with the goals of providing visual evidence of the cycles, bearing witness to the understory, and bridging the poetry of art with biological sciences.
Hurst Frye’s work has been featured in publications for both art and science, exhibitions, Microsoft Art Collection, King County Portable Works Collection, and other institutional collections. Hurst Frye holds an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, in Savannah, Georgia, and teaches regularly. Melinda lives with her family adjacent to an urban forest outside of Seattle, Washington, and is represented by J. Rinehart Gallery in Seattle, Washington.
Find more of Melinda Hurst Frye’s work at www.mhurstfrye.com.
All images by Melinda Hurst Frye