… started documenting the world around him in 1969 – entranced both with images from man-made structures and natural structures. It is perhaps the most compelling when one sees how mankind and nature have interacted. Sometimes it is man that is perverting nature, and sometimes nature perverts man’s structures – and sometimes there is a way to work together.

The completely natural images here have been sourced from: a beach that has light and dark sands of different densities so they are distributed by the moving water differently; the wing of an owl that was being sold on a beach; a succulent in shadows; mangroves growing out of Fijian water; light and wind shadows of plants growing in a dune; backlit moss hanging from tree branches; and rock patterns in Point Lobos.

The images representing the interaction of man and nature: heavily weathered wood from a “ghost town”; nets and chains used to collect fish from the sea; a wooden building collapsing over time in the most graceful way; a palm frond found in a commercial space; a portrait of a gardener who chose to live in the desert in a TeePee of heavily textured cloth; and part of a cave that was carved in sandstone in New Mexico, where he created his environment WITHIN natural substance.

Is ecology the study of how things change over time? How can one separate the human and natural things? Man always works to adapt nature to his needs – and nature always works to destroy what man has created. There can be short-term synergy – but will any stand the test of time?

Duggan sees the world in visual terms – but everything visual reflects our world and brings with it the emotional reality of our existence.