Red List looks at very rare or extinct species that have suffered habitat loss and competition from newly introduced species. “Red List” refers to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, an organization that maintains lists of species that are rare, threatened, or presumed extinct.

 

As these are plants that no longer exist (or are so rare that they have not been catalogued by humans in recent years), it is not possible to make a direct print. Fortunately, in the case of these plants, pressed specimens are preserved in herbarium archives such as those in at the Steere Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden.

 

Scanned samples are used to create full scale negatives, which are then used to create silver-based "ghost" photograms-- a photogram of a plant that it is no longer possible to make a true photogram of, due to its rarity.

 

The colors, contrast, and textured surface are artifacts of the chemical process, unique every time due to light, chemistry, and chance, and the silver that plates the surface of the prints emphasizes the preciousness of these lost species.