Chestnut Generations
With any good microscope, or under a loving gaze, the living qualities and details, the earth matter of our ecological ties come into the light. In the intimate space of attention, just before devotion, questions of being at stake to each other arise. Who are we together? Who would I be without you?
What stories allow our togetherness to emerge?
For my Aït Baamrane family of beekeepers, plants and insects are teachers, weaving endless lessons. Far from Morocco, on this land now called Cummington, Massachusetts, plants and their teachings keep calling me. We need each other, they say. That big we that holds all of life.
With chestnut trees of hybrid histories and the collectives they gather, I ask: What happens when we stay close? What kind of love does attention make possible? As a settler, what does loving this Mohican land necessitate? And how can I move toward land rematriation as an embodiment of that love? Across a year in shared inquiry alongside Amy, who devotes her life to attending to this land’s liveliness, these photographs came to be.
I offer this work with gratitude to both lands I have loved and their generosity in making and safeguarding multiform life. And to Amy and Alice. You have taught me anew what family can be.
