Rachel Sussman has an ongoing project to photograph the oldest living things in the world. About the project:
I am working on a project called “The Oldest Living Things in the World.” I’m researching, working with biologists, and traveling all over the world to find and photograph continuously living organisms that are 2,000 years old and older. I started the project 5 years ago, and have since photographed nearly 25 different organisms, ranging from the Bristlecone Pine and Giant Sequoias that you’ve surely heard of, to some truly unusual and unique desert shrubs, bacteria, a predatory fungus, and a clonal colony of Aspen trees that’s male and, in theory, immortal.
On a conceptual level, I’m developing this unique index of living organisms with exceptional longevity at a critical juncture in our collective trajectory: how will the natural world fare in the face of climate change? Part art, part science, part philosophy, I hope to tease out themes of longevity, sustainability, the natural sublime and mortality through the work.
The project also comes with a location map and a blog to track her progress. Right now she’s trying to find several more organisms before turning the project into a book. Here’s some on her to-do list:
- Searching the Antarctic Peninsula by boat for 5,000-year-old moss
- Backpacking in Tasmania and mainland Australia in search of several clonal shrubs in ranging from 10,000 to 43,000 years old
- Visiting a sacred site in Sri Lanka for a nearly 2,300-year-old Banyan Fig tree
- SCUBA diving in Spain to find the 100,000-year-old clonal sea grass
If you like the project, you should consider supporting her Kickstarter campaign to raise $10,000 to fund the project. At least you can support her to buy the film (yes, she still shoots film). (via Kottke)