Through handmade ceramic sculptures that function as pinhole cameras, Erin Jane Nelson brings photography into direct contact with the landscape, creating slow, intimate observations of soil, time, and the ecological systems beneath our feet.
At the Whitney Biennial 2026, Erin Jane Nelson presents a body of work that merges sculpture, photography, and ecology.
Born in Wisconsin and based in Santa Fe, Nelson creates ceramic sculptures that also function as pinhole cameras.
These handmade objects are not simply sculptures. They are tools for seeing—cameras designed to physically inhabit the landscapes they photograph.
Ceramic Sculptures as Cameras
Nelson transforms one of photography’s most basic technologies into a sculptural object.
Rather than working with a conventional camera, she constructs cameras from ceramic, allowing the physical object used to make the photograph to become part of the artistic process.
The camera therefore occupies two identities.
It is an artwork itself, but it is also the instrument through which another artwork—the photograph—is produced.
This relationship collapses the traditional separation between sculpture and photography.
Photographing Northern New Mexico
Nelson places her handmade cameras directly on the ground in the desert of northern New Mexico.
There, they remain still during long exposure periods.
Instead of capturing a fraction of a second, the cameras record the landscape slowly.
Light changes.
Shadows move.
Environmental conditions shift.
The resulting photographs contain traces of these gradual transformations, allowing time itself to become part of the image.
Looking at What Is Usually Overlooked
Rather than photographing the sweeping desert vistas traditionally associated with landscape photography, Nelson turns her attention downward.
Her cameras focus on the systems beneath our feet.
Soil, texture, small formations, organic matter, and ecological processes become worthy of sustained observation.
This shift changes the scale through which landscape is understood.
The monumental landscape is replaced by something more intimate: the ground itself.
Photography and Duration
Long exposure is essential to Nelson’s approach.
Photography is often associated with capturing an instant, but these images emerge through extended periods of waiting.
The camera remains stationary while the environment continues moving around it.
This creates photographs shaped by duration rather than immediacy.
Nelson’s process encourages a slower way of experiencing both photography and nature—one based on observation, patience, and attention.
Sculpture, Landscape, and Ecology
Because Nelson’s ceramic cameras are physically placed within the environment, the landscape becomes more than the subject of the photograph.
It becomes part of the photographic process.
The ceramic object encounters the earth directly while light and changing environmental conditions determine what ultimately appears in the image.
Photography becomes an interaction between object, place, material, and time.
The resulting works reveal ecology not as something distant or abstract, but as a continuous process occurring everywhere around us.
A Different Kind of Landscape Photography
Nelson’s practice expands the possibilities of landscape photography by changing both the camera and the perspective.
Instead of standing before a landscape and photographing it from a human viewpoint, she places the camera close to the earth.
That decision creates another way of seeing.
Small details become landscapes.
Soil becomes subject matter.
Slow ecological transformations become events.
The work suggests that understanding an environment may require paying attention to processes that are easily ignored because they occur gradually or at scales we rarely stop to observe.
Erin Jane Nelson at the Whitney Biennial 2026
Within the Whitney Museum of American Art, Nelson’s combination of ceramics, photography, and ecology encourages viewers to reconsider what it means to observe a landscape.
Her cameras do not simply document nature.
They spend time within it.
The process depends on stillness, duration, and proximity to the earth.
At the Whitney Biennial 2026, Erin Jane Nelson’s work invites a different kind of looking—one that is patient, grounded, and deeply attuned to the quiet rhythms and ecological systems of the natural world.
Explore the Complete Tarik Talk Whitney Biennial 2026 Series
Tarik Talk created dedicated coverage of every artist featured in the Whitney Biennial 2026, with individual episodes exploring the artists, artworks, histories, and ideas shaping this edition of the Biennial.
The complete series—including videos and podcast episodes—is available across Tarik Talk’s podcast streaming platforms and social media platforms, offering a closer look at every artist featured in the Whitney Biennial 2026.
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