Part and Parcel — ELPC Opening Reception

It is an honor to present Part and Parcel, an exhibition exploring the indivisible relationship between humans and nature through the lens of Lake Michigan, at the Environmental Law & Policy Center. Part and Parcel features photographs from the Lake Series and The Shore.

“Over the course of the Lake Series, the distance between me and the subject has collapsed, and what began as an act of capture has become something closer to a conversation.”

Lincoln Schatz

The Environmental Law & Policy Center has been fighting for 25 years to protect the Great Lakes and its shoreline from threats of pollution and overdevelopment. By displaying these photographs alongside ELPC, I hope to inspire viewers to join in efforts to protect and conserve these vital resources.

Part and Parcel is on view in the ELPC photo gallery through Summer 2026 by appointment only. Please contact studio@lincolnschatz.com to coordinate a visit.

For a transcribed version of my artist talk, navigate to my Substack.

 

There is a moment in any sustained practice when observation becomes participation. What began as an act of capture in 2015 became something closer to conversation, a daily exchange in which I stopped photographing the lake and began photographing with it. The Lake Series tracks the slow dissolution of that dualism into something more honest: two bodies, mutually dependent, each essential to the survival of the other.

This is the quiet argument of Part and Parcel: stewardship is not a gesture of generosity toward something separate from us, but it is an act of self-preservation within a system that has no true outside. These photographs are not images of the lake; they are evidence of a relationship.

 

As an accompaniment to the exhibition, I will give a Zoom presentation this summer through the ELPC to discuss my experience photographing Lake Michigan and the valuable connection we share with the Great Lakes. Subscribe to our mailing list for updates.