Rachel Cox, associate professor of photography in the School of Art, Art History, and Design, received a $4,000 Artist Professional Grant through the National Endowment for the Arts and Iowa Arts Council to support a new photography project during her research leave this fall. 

Cox spent four days in southern Florida photographing the Strangler Fig (Ficus aurea), a parasitic tree native to the region that envelops and chokes out its host tree as it grows. The trees provide a visual language for Cox to explore the experience of being a mother.

“The way the branches slowly curl and wrap around the host calls to mind metaphors of motherhood and the mental load of caretaking,” Cox said. “Especially for birthing people, giving yourself over to another - one’s child - can feel overwhelming, and it’s easy to lose track of where you end and this other being begins.”

The next phase of Cox’s project will take her to Vermont, where she will attend professional photogravure workshops at Prints on Paper, a print shop nationally acclaimed for the historic printmaking process. Photogravure uses a metal or polymer plate layered with ink and run through an etching press to produce highly detailed, tactile prints that bring together qualities of photography, drawing, and printmaking.

The grant will cover Cox’s travel to Florida and Vermont, and costs associated with the photogravure workshop.