By Ronica Stromberg
From fashion runways to sharks and stingrays, Keegan Dunn's photographic interests have shifted in the past few years. He traces the shift back to a cottonwood tree.
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln integrated science major was studying fashion photography at Metropolitan Community College and interning at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. He started overhearing talk about cutting down an old tree on the art center’s campus.
"Something really rubbed me wrong about that, and I didn't even care about trees too much at that point, which now I've become obsessed with them," he said. "And a lot of my work is about documenting how trees grow in specific areas and whatnot, kind of based just purely off that tree."
Dunn sought a way to make the cottonwood tree last longer if it came down. He took bark from it and made natural dyes, which later became a big part of his work.
The Nebraska junior had learned at Metropolitan Community College about cyanotypes, blue photographic images first created in the 1800s. He used this method, adding cottonwood bark to the chemical bath he dyed paper in, and produced a photo of a childhood friend in the Platte River.
\Dunn had spent much time playing on the Platte with this friend and others after moving from Tacoma, Washington, to Bellevue, Nebraska, in elementary school. As a teen, he and 40-50 friends would gather tents and grills on the riverbank, play their music and picnic on the Platte. These memories flooded back to him as he developed the cyanotype.
The resulting image set in deep blue raises more questions than it answers with its human figure blurring into the waters. The vintage-looking white frame hints at an earlier time, its edges also blurred slightly like memories.
Dunn said the cyanotype accomplished what he wanted, expressing symbolism of the region and appealing to memories most Nebraskans hold of the role water has played in their lives.
"I was gathering significance from that sense of place and understanding that I can generate a sense of home for people more than just myself, I suppose, and looking at it in terms of ‘We're Nebraskans, and we're water people,'" he said.
Follow the rest of Keegan's story and see many more images he took at https://snr.unl.edu/aboutus/what/newstory.aspx?fid=1228
Read a companion story about the team leaders of the trip at https://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/snr/18455/100150