AnnieLaurie Erickson is an Associate Professor and the head of photography in the Newcomb Art Department of Tulane. Her work explores how science can combine with artistic creation to probe social and environmental issues in the Gulf South through the lens of perception. Erickson’s artwork has been exhibited widely in the US and abroad, including: Higher Pictures, NYC; the Goethe-Institut, Washington, DC; Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA; Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR; Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, LA; Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette, LA; Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYC; Boston Center for the Arts; and CentrePasquArt, Bienne, Switzerland. Notable press includes: New Yorker, Huffington Post, Oxford American, Washington Post, Paper Magazine, Afterimage, and Foam Magazine. Erickson received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.

“While in residence, I worked on research and planning for a river expedition documenting the petrochemical industry in Cancer Alley. This project utilizes a photographic afterimaging process that involves the development of custom-built cameras and artificial retinas that register the remains of light. Using beauty as an access point into complex environmental issues, I aim to render the petrochemical refineries in this region as ghostly and vanishing, an unearthly forbidden landscape that should be perceived as a relic of our destructive past.

The shift in my surroundings and environment that occurred through working at ASITW activated new forms of research and production in my ongoing efforts with this project.” – AnnieLaurie Erickson