© Seth Cook

For the Art + Science Competition entitled States of Change, we asked to see photography that examines art and science through transition, transformation, and instability. Change may be gradual or abrupt, visible or difficult to perceive, ranging from emotional shifts to environmental conditions. We invited artists to consider how photography can reveal states of change—where boundaries are not fixed and conditions are continually shifting.

Heavy metals and other chemicals from industrial runoff permeate many of our most splendid and important natural resources. Seth Cook’s Closer to the Sun merges conservation-centric documentation of the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana, with a strong material metaphor. His photographs are made using the chromoskedasic sabattier process, that results in black and white photography with an iridescent gold and silver surface that brings heavy metals and oil slicks to mind. Conceptually, Cook’s chemistry and documentation of a polluted landscape intermingle perfectly.

© Seth Cook

© Seth Cook

“Closer to the Sun” is an ongoing photographic study of industrial pollution and the altered landscapes that carry decades of hidden contamination. Drawing on the myth of Icarus, a story of unchecked ambition and its consequences, the work examines regions where industrial progress and environmental vulnerability have become inseparable. Through fieldwork and research, this multi-year project documents industrial legacy across the Mississippi watershed.

The final photographic prints are rendered with the Chromoskedasic Sabattier process, a darkroom technique that manipulates silver particles to produce unpredictable tonal reversals, metallic sheens, and vibrant colors. The process is itself unstable and only partially controllable, a metaphor for humanities impact on the environment. In these prints, contaminated, re-engineered, and quietly poisoned landscapes become both evidence and reflection, revealing how industry reshapes not only the land but the very image of America, highlighting the importance of industrial regulation and the continuation of environmental preservation.

The project began in 2022 with an exploration of the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana, America’s largest wetland and the site of active and inactive petrochemical infrastructure. With help from the Atchafalaya Basinkeepers, and later McGee’s Swamp Tours, I was guided through the waterways of the Atchafalaya Basin and documented terminals, control stations, barges, and even stretches of abandoned highway.

In 2026, the project expanded by concentrating on the industrial pollution around Buffalo, NY. Through an artist residency supported by CEPA Gallery, I was able to document the surrounding areas and consider the polluted history behind sites such as Love Canal, Tifft Nature Preserve, and Silo City. That experience influenced the project’s next phase: the entire Mississippi River watershed, centered on Superfund/NPL sites along three corridors, the Arkansas, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers. Each location represents a distinct typology of industrial and agricultural pollution, supplemented by a broader view of the full Mississippi drainage basin.

© Seth Cook

© Seth Cook

Seth Cook is an artist from the Bayou Teche region in south-central Louisiana. Drawing inspiration from the swamps and marshes of his home, his versatile studio practice often merges photography with other creative media, imbuing a deeper sense of meaning through his choice of materials and techniques. Reviews of his work are featured in publications such as Lenscratch, SHOTS Magazine, and Analog Explorations. His work can be found in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and Manifest Gallery and Creative Research Center. He is a recipient of GCSU’s 2026 Academic Affairs Creative Research Grant, the 2024-2025 Digital Humanities Collaborative Grant, and a 2025/2026 Critical Mass Top 200 Finalist. He serves as Assistant Professor of Photography at Georgia College and State University.

Instagram: @sethcook_art

© Seth Cook

© Seth Cook

© Seth Cook

© Seth Cook

© Seth Cook

© Seth Cook

© Seth Cook

© Seth Cook

© Seth Cook

© Seth Cook

About the Jurors:

Linda Alterwitz is an independent interdisciplinary artist with a focus on photography. For over two decades, her work has combined art and science exploring the unseen systems that shape our world and the relationships between humanity, technology, and the natural environment to encourage dialogue around choice, trust, and collective experience. Using a high-resolution thermal camera and other digital and analogue techniques, she visualizes phenomena beyond ordinary perception.

She has exhibited widely in traditional exhibition and site-specific installations at institutions including FORMAT25, Derby, UK; Museum of Art & History, Lancaster, CA – part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide Getty Initiative; New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM, among others.

Alterwitz’s work is held in permanent collections including the Institute for Art + Environment, Reno, NV;  Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ; Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA; Hilliard Museum of Art, Lafayette, LA; Nelson Atkins Special Collections Library, Kansas City, MO; Santa Barbara Museum of Art Fearing Library, Santa Barbara, CA; Rochester Institute of Technology, Wallace Library, Rochester, NY, among others.

Recent awards include Nevada Arts Council Fellowship for Visual Arts 2025 and 2014, Individual Artist Grant from Healthy Communities Coalition 2023, NV, Individual Artist Grant 2020, Montana Arts Council, among others.

Instagram: @lindaalterwitz

Ben Hickey is the Executive Director for the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts in Buffalo, New York. Previously he was curator of exhibitions and Emily Cyr Bridges Endowed Professor of Art at the Hilliard Art Museum on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. With over one hundred exhibition credits, artists he has exhibited include Brian Kelly of the Marais Press, Letitia Huckaby, L. Kasimu Harris, Robert C. Tannen, Richard Landry, Pat Phillips, Sonya Clark, Hasan Elahi, Dawoud Bey, and James Surls.

Hickey’s most recent writing can be found in Beili Liu: Mend, a monograph published by the Art League Houston in celebration of Liu’s 2024 Texas Artist of the Year Award. Other essayists include Bridget Bray, Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, Eddie Chambers, Katie Pfohl, and Kay Whitney.

In 2023 Hickey received a Samuel H. Kress Foundation Travel Grant to co-present research related to Marais Press on-campus collaborations at the 51st Annual Art Libraries Society of North America in Mexico City. Earlier in his career, he presented Reshaping Our Programming: The Artist in Residence Program at the New York Historical Society in conjunction with an Association of Art Museum Curators annual conference. He has also served as a panelist or consultant for Villa Albertine, the Joan Mitchell Center, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, PhotoNOLA, and the San Antonio Art League.

Earlier in his career, Hickey held positions at the Masur Museum of Art, California Museum of Photography, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and the Arts Council of Buffalo & Erie County. He is an active member of the Association of Art Museum Curators, having served as a trustee from 2015 to 2020. He earned his master’s in art history from the University of California Riverside and his bachelor’s in history from Canisius University.

Instagram: @_normal_ben_