Depictions of the outdoors in national archives photographs, advertising campaigns for recreation gear, and tourist social media posts have uncanny similarities. Together, they represent a choreography of the outdoors, a nearly imperceptible and ongoing relationship between colonizing, capital, and experience. This installation highlights and complicates these connections. 

In “Developed, Developing” we call attention to the ways in which history and industry shape outdoor enthusiasts contemporary experiences in so-called public land. The images photographers on 19th century US Geological Surveys captured helped facilitate the annexation of land into US governmental control. These archival photographs are echoed in the imagery outdoor gear manufacturers use to advertise their products. In turn, these conventions are mirrored in social media posts outdoor enthusiasts share to document their travels. 

This project takes the language of developed campgrounds (a phrase used to signal campsites with a particular level of infrastructure) and the processes of developing photographs as its title and its conceptual frame. We consider the ways in which photography and the conservation of lands might appear to be neutral, and yet are integral to the ongoing project of settler colonialism and related to the ideology of capitalism. 

Created with Meredith Laura Lynn. Exhibited as a part of the Tennessee Triennial at the Knoxville Museum of Art. Found imagery from Utah State University Special Collections and Archives, the National Park Service Archives, and the Getty Research Institute. Instagram images courtesy of @timhalbergphoto, @bre.streiss, @natreynoso, @bitterrootbackpacking, @ashley_tran__, @plantcookeat, @alexmmdw, @brookebeyond_

Images courtesy of Kelsie Conley.