©Meghann Riepenhoff, Day 287: mushroom ink + Prussian Blue pigment + algae pigment + commercial pigment + ginkgo chlorophyll + Rattlesnake Lake + Moncton boulders, 2024

Each year during Earth Week I curate a collection of photographic projects from artists who are working to make the often-invisible nature of the global climate and the ecological crisis more visible using conceptual, lens-based art techniques. The arts – and the visual arts in particular – have a unique capacity to confront audiences with uncomfortable truths, provoke meaningful discussion, foster empathy, and inspire individuals to take action on today’s most pressing issues.

Today, we’re looking at Meghann Riepenhoff’s project, State Shift.

These bodies of work are linked by this thematic lens: making the often-invisible nature of the global climate and the ecological crisis more visible using conceptual, lens-based art techniques.

©Meghann Riepenhoff, Day 263.1: Waters of the Americas: Florida Department of Environmental Protection #8092, 2024

State Shift

State Shift is a geological term describing dramatic and sudden changes to ecosystems — often when critical thresholds are crossed. I experienced one form of this catalyzing phenomenon in early 2024, when an extreme weather event caused extensive damage to my home and caused a two year subsequent displacement. The works in State Shift were made during this time of displacement, which I used as an opportunity to explore national sites highly compromised by human intervention. The addition of pigments, mushroom ink, and additional materials act as an allegory for the impact of humans on the landscape.

©Meghann Riepenhoff, Untitled, 2025

These locations include Miami Beach, FL, considered a “ground zero” of the climate crisis, barraged by recurring storms and threatened by rising sea levels; and the former town of Moncton, WA, which was completely submerged in 1915 when an ill-advised dam was constructed to provide Seattle with power and water. I also worked downriver from the Hanford Site, the most toxic place in the USA. It was the site of plutonium manufacturing used in the first atomic bomb, which had devastating impacts on local communities. While the cleanup continues, just a few miles down the Columbia River, locals swim in the river and enjoy family gatherings at its shores.

©Meghann Riepenhoff, Day 44: mushroom ink + Prussian Blue pigment + lake water + commercial pigment + mica, 2024

I found the time of our displacement difficult and rich, survivable but grueling, and I turned to my art as a place of connection and ground, a foundation where I could regroup and compost the destabilizing processes of loss and recovery. This work considers the truth that no one is exempt from the impacts of human degradation of the environment.

©Meghann Riepenhoff, Waters of the Americas: EPA #WA3890090076 (Downriver Residue from the Hanford Site, Iris + Mushroom Ink + Alkaline Resist, Columbia River, WA), 2025

©Meghann Riepenhoff, Day 287: mushroom ink + Prussian Blue pigment + algae pigment + beta carotene + ginkgo chlorophyll + Rattlesnake Lake + Moncton old growth stump, 2024

©Meghann Riepenhoff, Untitled, 2025

©Meghann Riepenhoff, Day 49: cyanotype + soda ash + windfall fir branch + lake water + dusting of snow, 2024

©Meghann Riepenhoff, Hundred Sixty-Nine, Maui, HI), 2024

©Meghann Riepenhoff, 10. Day 260.2: Waters of the Americas, Florida Department of Environmental Protection #8092, 2024

Meghann Riepenhoff (b. 1979 Atlanta, GA) is an artist based on the west coast of the United States. She received a BFA in Photography from the University of Georgia, and an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. Her camera-less cyanotypes are created in collaboration with the landscape and the ocean, at the edges of both. In 2018, Riepenhoff was recognized as a Guggenheim Fellow.

Her work has been exhibited internationally at countless major institutions, with collections including the National Gallery, the Getty, the High Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She has published two monographs, Littoral Drift + Ecotone and Ice. The latter was named a Top 10 Photography Book of 2022 by Smithsonian Magazine.

Instagram: @meghannriepenhoff