In her ongoing series By Her Side, Somosi photographs trees that stood near the homes or studios of twenty-five pioneering women artists and thinkers whose practices were rooted in America and Europe and whose work has influenced her own. Among them are Emily Dickinson, Georgia O’Keeffe, Toni Morrison, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf. The trees serve as witnesses to these women’s lives, enabling Somosi to create portraits by proxy and trace their legacies. All these women shared a deep connection to the land and used their pioneering spirit to advance education and inquiry, as well as land conservation, preservation and appreciation. For Somosi, visiting the sites is a performative act that draws on photography’s capacity to connect and memorialise: the women remain unseen, yet their connection to place endures. Back in the studio, Somosi translates the photographs into large-scale, hand-printed cyanotypes.

Location: Austerlitz, NY