Abstracting the Anthropocene: An Ecological Elegy

An exhibition of work by Brittanie Bondie and Megan Major, Selected from RAC’s 2024 Call for Exhibitions

Water plays a crucial role in her work, not just as a depicted element but as a direct participant in the creation process. Sampling water from four rivers in Southeast Michigan, the Rouge, Raisin, Flint, and Detroit, she uses the water itself to develop cyanotypes, creating a visual record unique to each river. This method closely aligns her practice with the eco artists of the 1970s, who treated the earth itself as both medium and subject of the artwork. The cyanotypes articulate a tension between the alleviation and intensification of eco-anxiety, making visible the complex emotions tied to our environmental predicament.

Some of the cyanotypes are bathed in red wine and bleach, substances chosen for their symbolic resonance with the pollution and degradation of the rivers. Bleach, often associated with sterilization and purification, represents the human impulse to “fix” environmental damage, yet its corrosive nature also suggests the harm caused by overly aggressive or artificial interventions. Red wine, with its deep, staining hue and ties to ritual, blood, and transformation, symbolizes both the vitality of the rivers and their contamination. It evokes the tension between what sustains life and what threatens it, turning the photographic process into a meditation on the fragility, misuse, and attempted redemption of natural resources.

Megan Major, offers a contrasting yet thematically aligned perspective through her digital photographic prints. Her images capture plant life within Biosphere 2, the world’s largest controlled environment dedicated to studying climate change impacts. Located in Oracle, Arizona, this facility serves as a unique microcosm for examining ecological transformations.

 An important aspect of Biosphere 2 captured in her work is the plant matter growing up against the windows and the new algae growth spreading across them. This imagery underscores the concept of containment while simultaneously illustrating nature’s relentless attempt to reclaim space, symbolizing the tension between human control and the natural world’s inherent drive to thrive and take over.

Juxtaposed with these interior ecosystems are Major’s glacier ice images, studies of melting, fractured ice surfaces photographed in retreating glacial regions. These works function as elegies to a disappearing world, revealing both the beauty and fragility of frozen landscapes under duress. The stark textures and ephemeral patterns of the ice echo the same themes of climate urgency, impermanence, and the quiet persistence of natural systems in flux.

Together, the two bodies of work form a dialogue between containment and collapse, between sealed, human-designed biospheres and the unbounded forces unraveling in the cryosphere. Through these visual inquiries, Major explores how nature resists, adapts, and ultimately reclaims, even in the face of ecological disruption.

Through abstraction, both artists transcend traditional boundaries, inviting viewers to engage with ecological concerns on both an intellectual and emotional level. Their works serve as a reminder of the intricate, often fragile relationship we share with our planet, urging a reflection on how we perceive, interact with, and ultimately impact the natural world.

Artist Bios

Brittanie Bondie is a process-based analogue photographer based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, working primarily with alternative and historical image-making methods. Her practice blurs the lines between photography and painting, pushing the boundaries of the photographic medium through tactile, material-driven processes. By using camera-less techniques and surface manipulation, her work offers viewers an unconventional visual experience, one that exists between image and object.

She holds an MFA in Creative Photography from the University of Florida (2015), a BFA in Photography from Kendall College of Art and Design (2011), and a BA in Studio Art from Western Michigan University (2007). Her work has been exhibited nationally, including at Woman Made Gallery (Chicago), Playground Detroit, and MOCA North Miami, and has been featured in Aeonian Magazine and Woman Made Gallery’s 25th International Open.

Bondie is the recipient of an Artist Grant from the Vermont Studio Center and a Graduate Fellowship from the University of Florida. Through her experimental practice, she offers alternative ways of experiencing photography, inviting viewers to reconsider visual perception and reflect on their relationship with the natural world.

Megan Major
Megan Major is a Detroit-based artist whose photographic work explores themes of transformation, ecological tension, and the quiet friction between natural systems and constructed environments. Her recent projects examine climate-controlled ecosystems, glacial topographies, and the overlooked poetry of decay and regeneration.

Major holds a BA in Photography from Grand Valley State University (2007). Her work has been widely exhibited, with recent shows including Photography Now at Woman Made Gallery (Chicago), Photographic Abstractions of the Anthropocene: An Ecological Elegy at Riverside Arts Center (Ypsilanti), and Hot DAM! at the Detroit Artists Market. In 2026, she will attend the Vermont Studio Center on a fully funded fellowship.

A co-founder and ongoing organizer of the Detroit Art Book Fair, Major is deeply engaged in independent publishing and DIY culture. Her artist books are held in numerous special collections, including those at Yale University, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Peabody Essex Museum.

Through a practice grounded in observation and material nuance, Major’s work offers a poetic lens on environmental impermanence, fragility, and quiet resilience.