Chrystel Lebas - Field Studies

The British botanist Sir Edward James Salisbury left behind a large collection of glass plate negatives, discovered in an anonymous stack of boxes in the attic of London’s Natural History Museum. Brought to the attention of Chrystel Lebas, for whom walking has always been a part of her objective approach (she brings two cameras, one for quick snapshots and another with tripod for panoramic views), they instigated a turning point in her career. This enticingly beautiful, complex book is both an artistic research project and a scientific inquiry. Tracing Salisbury’s footsteps, Lebas observes environmental changes in the British landscape by photographing the same locations a century later.