This image is a perfect example of the possibilities inherent in paper negatives. In this image we combined a negative of a lightning strike on Mount Lemmon, Tucson, AZ, 1991 with a field and RPH/contraption photographed in Worcester, MA, 1998. Paper negatives offer us the ability to create believable, surrealities: merge and unify negatives from different parts of the world, combine appropriated images within our own creations, creating other worlds within the ‘reality’ of a photograph. Old school. Magic from the Darkroom. No pixels. — Shana ParkeHarrison

We create photographs which tell stories of loss, human struggle, and personal exploration within landscapes scarred by technology and over use. We strive to metaphorically and poetically link our laborious actions, idiosyncratic rituals and strangely crude machines into our tales about our modern existence. Inherent in this civilization of consumption and technology is the waste and destruction of the vulnerable earth. — Robert ParkeHarrison

Robert ParkeHarrison collaborates with his wife, Shana, on the conception and execution of complex images that combine performance, sculpture, photography, and painting. Their innovative approach to picture making draws upon their use of paper negatives and collage to construct stories of loss and struggle amid landscapes scarred by technology and over-use. At the heart of these pictorial tales is a lone individual—ParkeHarrison himself as “Everyman” interacting with, or trying to bandage up, a broken piece of the Earth. But his tools are never suited for the task before him. . The mythic world he creates mirrors our world, where nature is domesticated and controlled. In actions that are both humorously metaphorical and lyrically poetic, ParkeHarrison constructs beguiling stories that make us consider what we have done or are doing to our earth.” [1]