The series “Nature Vs. Nurture” is the result of a very impromptu adventure which the artist Wes Fowinkle (along with one very trusting family member would find themselves waist deep in a swamp in the middle of the night searching for a flooded church with only headlamps and walking sticks to find their way. After driving hours in the night, down washed out country roads, and around a “Road Closed” sign, the dirt road they were traveling along simply turned to water. At this point they parked the car, donned fishing waders and headlamps, and entered the water to begin their search; it was sometime after 12am. After hours of uncertainty down unknown roads, and searching for the flooded church while waist-deep in the murky swamp, in the pitch black of night the ghostly structure finally appeared!

At this point they started setting up photography equipment. The first shot taken was ‘Nature vs. Nurture / Midnight’, which consists of a 3 second exposure while the church was “hand painted” with light using a powerful spotlight. The second image taken, ‘Nature vs. Nurture / Dawn’, happened a few hours later at sunrise, when the sun was just beginning to rise above the horizon. Around noon clouds moved in which resulted in the beautiful reflections found in the waters of ‘Nature vs. Nurture / Midday’. And finally for the last image in the series, ‘Nature vs. Nurture / Genesis’ — this image was captured by shooting a glass plate negative via the wet plate collodion process using a camera from 1890. This image consists of hand poured collodion film on a glass plate which was then sensitized, exposed, and developed all while standing waist deep in the Mississippi swamp. This image was developed on location using a dark box that was floating in a small boat alongside the camera. The four images are all incredibly unique. ‘Nature vs. Nurture / Midnight’ has a surreal dreamlike quality, isolated, silent, yet luminous. ‘Nature vs. Nurture ’/ Dawn’ is quiet with a peaceful and serene glow. In ‘Nature vs. Nurture / Midday’ the clouds have moved in and have given the image lacy rippled details in the water, while ‘Nature vs. Nurture / Genesis’ seems to be an image from a world long ago.

All images were taken by the artist Wes Fowinkle/Fowink in March of 2019.

All images are original with no digital trickery.

To view true dimensions of this image, please click the photo to expand.

Please note all prints are in landscape format except for ‘Nature vs Nurture Midday’, which is in portrait format.