Chasing Ghosts - The Extinct Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

The ivory-billed woodpecker has long been known as the “Ghost Bird.” Once native to the southeastern United States, it declined as old-growth forests were logged, its habitat was destroyed, and the birds were hunted. Despite occasional reports and decades of searching, no sighting has been conclusively confirmed in modern times.

Chasing Ghosts is about the quest to find this missing bird. I placed the ivory-billed woodpecker inside the frame of a house, flying and seemingly healthy, but not truly free. The setting is a kind of collective unconscious dream state—a place where the bird still exists, but within boundaries created by us.

We have bulldozed our way into modernity without always considering what gets destroyed along the way. What looks like progress to some can mean the loss of a home, a species, or an entire ecosystem to others. Unless we understand that we are all connected, we're doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes.

Preserving nature and its inhabitants is, by definition, preserving ourselves.