Photography and Words by Megan Cump

Photo Editor and Interview by Xinxin Zhang

“ATOMS/STONES”

“My series ATOMS / STONES is a lyrical atlas, made of fireworks, insects, prehistoric rock carvings, night skies, and portraits of sleepers. In Madrid, I encountered a 250,000-year-old fragment of a cranium––its interior laced with inky lines, branching like rivers on a map. This led me to a photographic investigation at the intersection of cosmology and cartography.

Charting their paths and patterns in the dark sky: stars, fireworks, satellites, and fireflies plot their coordinates in light. These dots and dashes, made on both a micro and macro scale, collide and scatter like atomic particles, tracing the universe on film. Other photographs are from my nighttime explorations in Portugal’s Côa River Valley. Here, Paleolithic images of horses, aurochs, felines, and ibex were incised into the rocky terrain over 20,000 years ago; marking the route of late Ice Age migrations and the origins of art making.

Woman Crush Questionnaire:

1. What is your motivation to make your genre of photographic art?

In Madrid, I encountered a 250,000-year-old fragment of a cranium––its interior laced with inky lines, branching like rivers on a map. This led me to a photographic investigation at the intersection of cosmology and cartography. The resulting series, ATOMS / STONES, is a lyrical atlas, made of fireworks, insects, prehistoric rock carvings, starry skies, and portraits of sleepers.

My work is led by a fascination with the night, wilderness, and the remote while registering the redemptive value of the ephemeral and transformation. It builds upon photography’s historic relationship with making the unseen visible.