A Geological Survey

Rose Marie Cromwell reinterprets landscape photography through a personal lens. Her series follows her, her mother, and daughter across the American West, blending intimate reflections on family with broader social and ecological themes.

My photographic project, “A Geological Survey” examines the complicated history of the Western US in the context of my personal experience growing up in the region. The project is grounded in memories of impressionable road trips out West as a child, but contextualized by my experience of motherhood and anxiety about my daughter’s future. I’m interested in the history of photography of the western landscape – typically a male-driven, colonial space – but aim to reframe it from the point of view of a mother and environmentalist. Often, depictions of landscape can separate the land from the photographer. On the contrary, I aim to make images that show the important spiritual relationship I have with the West, while acknowledging it as a geography that has a long history of exploitation. In some of the images, my three year old daughter, my mother, and I perform for the camera in off-the-grid locations to illustrate how closely our identities and futures are tied to the land. Additionally, I photograph a wide array of found scenes, such as ruins of mining camps, rocks as talismans, and landscapes abstracted by light or mirrors to derive meaning from past wounds and find clues to a more sustainable future.