We are pleased to present this review of recent works by the team of Amanda Marchand and Leah Sobsey, who have been collaborating on alternative photographic projects for the past five years. Beginning with works from This earthen door, their Emily Dickinson inspired series of reworked images culled from scans of the poet’s herbarium of pressed flowers, which led naturally to a current obsession with the land, the plants and the archives at the New York Botanical Garden.

That project, titled Understory, mines an expansive archive of photographic images created by the NYBG resident staff photographer, Fleda Griffith. Drawing from the New York Botanical Garden’s extensive archive, the project highlights the contributions of women who have historically remained at the margins of scientific and photographic recognition.

Central to this inquiry is Fleda Griffith, a largely overlooked, early twentieth-century photographer whose work as the Garden’s staff photographer played a critical role in shaping its visual archive. By re-engaging Griffith’s legacy, the artists reframe questions of visibility and historical memory.