Suwannee Canal, 2014br/Archival pigment printbr/33” x 16”br/The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is in the middle of nowhere. The area was raped, pillaged, and left to die between 1909 and 1928 when millions of board feet of old-growth cypress were clear cut from the swamp. If not for the Great Depression and the shear difficulty of removing the trees, the devastation would be complete. While photographing this stand of young cypress, I thought about the hundreds of years that must pass before these trees reach the maturity of what was lost. Overhead, the contrail etched a reminder that our “machine” is ever-present and that no place is exempt from man’s influence.