Cal Bryer
The Little Things
Photography
Within the magnificence of our planet’s natural beauty, its minute contributors can be forgotten. People, too, can be brushed aside if they do not easily fit societal molds. Bryer reminds us that the size or ability of an organism does not dictate the importance of its role, capacity for power, or worthiness of attention. In acknowledging all participants, we can treat each living being with more care, passion, and equity.
Artist Statement
Often, nature is perceived in the public eye as these grand destinations that elicit great awe and are vast in the space they preserve. This can often promote an expectation that our natural environments are isolated and expensive to immerse in. This type of thinking is dangerous, not just for the little natural spaces that can be found throughout human development in danger of being trampled by us— but also for those living far away from these destinations where it is easy to feel isolated from the environment which has always facilitated our growth. Identifying the little things in nature has always been important to me as a way to see the beauty in the different scales of the ecology of our natural world. As someone on the autism spectrum who finds trouble establishing themselves socially, feeling insignificant is something I’m familiar with. Yet, these hidden features of nature often overlooked in the pursuit of nature’s “true” grandeur can reveal so much beauty, awe, and inspiration that we sometimes wonder why we ever walked past them in the first place. In looking for what is considered to be hidden and insignificant, we can promote empathy and passion by more creatively loving the little things nature offers, and flip our relationship with spaces of nature into a more equitable one.