© Gesche Wuerfel, Rumbling Bald, NC (1), version 1 (2020-21), solarized and roasted gelatin silver print, 8 x 10”

© Gesche Wuerfel, Blue Ridge Parkway, NC (1), version 1 (2020-21), solarized gelatin silver print, 11 x 14”

Gesche Würfel is a visual artist based in New York City. Using film and a 4×5 large-format camera for her photo series Forests in the Anthropocene, she photographed forests in two different climate zones to highlight geographically-specific threats to trees in nature. Through her use of specific photographic processes, such as solarization, mirroring or adding sea salt to her prints, she invokes the devastation from warmer temperatures, forest fires, sea level rise and saltwater intrusion — thereby bringing us face-to-face with the effects of human-caused climate change on our essential forest systems.

© Gesche Wuerfel, Mount Greylock, MA (2), version 1 (2019-20), solarized and roasted gelatin silver print, 16 x 20”

© Gesche Wuerfel, Battle Park, NC (3), version 1 (2019-20), solarized and roasted gelatin silver print, 14 x 11”

“Forests in the Anthropocene” is a photography project exploring human-made climate change’s effects on forests. Forests are significant carbon sinks and remain one of the most critical ecosystems to preserve, covering 31% of the globe’s land surface, with half of the world’s forests having their homes in the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America, and China.

Forests are essential for biodiversity, water and oxygen supply, food production, livelihoods, and climate change mitigation. However, deforestation and degradation continue at alarming rates, which, alongside increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, lead to increasing average and extreme temperatures across the globe.

Depending on their geographic location, trees face a variety of climate change impacts, from rising temperatures to drought, fires, invasive pests, flooding, storms, sea level rise, or saltwater intrusion. Using 4×5 film and a large-format camera, I photographed forests in two U.S. states and climate zones (North Carolina and Massachusetts) to show the impacts of global warming.

I used specific photographic processes to represent each impact. For example, I invoke warming through solarizing prints in the darkroom, drought with solarized prints roasted in a kiln, sea level rise by mirroring gelatin silver prints, and saltwater intrusion by adding sea salt from the North Carolina coast.

Photography creates many carbon emissions, such as traveling to locations, shipping, and supplies such as paper and darkroom chemicals. I tried to stay local as much as possible to emit as little carbon as possible. The first part of the project was photographed in Massachusetts while I was attending a residency at the MASS MoCA and while a visiting researcher at Harvard Forest in 2019. The second part of the project was photographed in North Carolina, where I lived for several years until 2022.

I want to thank Prof. Peter White (UNC Chapel Hill), Aaron Ellison and Neil Pederson (Harvard Forest), Robert Leverett, Misty Franklin (NC Natural Heritage Program), and Steven Norman ( USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station) for their scientific input.

The carbon emissions created with this project were offset through www.carbonfootprint.com.  

© Gesche Wuerfel, Wayah Bald, NC (1), version 1 (2020), solarized gelatin silver print, 24 x 20”

Gesche Würfel is a visual artist and a Visiting Arts Professor in the Department of Photo & Imaging at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA), an MA in Photography and Urban Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London (UK), and a Diploma in Spatial Planning from the Technical University Dortmund (Germany).

Her work has been exhibited, published, and awarded internationally. Exhibition venues include Tate Modern, London (UK), Künstlerhaus Bethanien (DE), David Zwirner (USA), Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh (USA), Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University (USA), Goldsmiths Center for Contemporary Art (UK), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (USA), and Singapore International Photography Festival (SG).

Würfel is the author of Basement Sanctuaries (Schilt Publishing, 2014) and The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall (DISTANZ, 2025). Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, WIRED, Slate, and many other outlets. She is a recipient of grants from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany, the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, the NYU Office of the Provost, the NYU Center for the Humanities, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Puffin Foundation, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), among others. She was selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2007. Collecting institutions are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Museum, MA (USA), the Portland Museum of Art, OR (USA), and the Pensacola Museum of Art, FL (USA). Würfel is represented by Tracey Morgan Gallery.

© Gesche Wuerfel, Rumbling Bald, NC (4), version 1 (2020-21), solarized and burned gelatin silver print, 10 x 8”

© Gesche Wuerfel, Eno River, NC (1) (2020-21) laser-etched archival pigment print, 20 x 16”

© Gesche Wuerfel, Rumbling Bald, NC (5), version 1 (2020-21) solarized and burned gelatin silver print, 9.75 x 7.5” (burned) 10 x 8” (paper size) (Photograph © Dot Editions 2021)

© Gesche Wuerfel, Wayah Bald, NC (3), version 2 (2020-2021), solarized and roasted gelatin silver print on glossy RC paper, 14 x 11” (Photograph © Dot Editions 2021)

© Gesche Wuerfel, Harvard Forest, MA (1), version 1 (2019-21), solarized and ripped gelatin silver print, 16 x 21”

© Gesche Wuerfel, Nags Head Woods Preserve, NC (1) (2021), archival pigment print, 24 x 20”

© Gesche Wuerfel, Cape Fear River, NC (1), (2021-22), archival pigment print, 8 x 10”

© Gesche Wuerfel, Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, NC (1), version 1 (2021) archival pigment print, 8 x 10”

© Gesche Wuerfel, Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, NC (2), version 1 (2021) archival pigment print, 8 x 10”

© Gesche Wuerfel, The Frying Pan, NC (1) (2021), archival pigment print, 8 x 10”