limulidae

The series is composed of successive imprints as I progressed in burnishing my roughened plate. The shape of the animal slowly appears from the dark to come in full light and detail. The dark-to-light mezzotint method is then twisted with a partial cleaning of the plate resulting in an uncertain print.

The printing process mirrors the biological history of the Limulidae family since their estimated origin in the Paleozoic era–a hardly conceivable timescale of evolution compared to the accelerated threats their descendants are facing in the Anthropocene. The remaining horseshoe crabs species are currently depleted by human greed in the medical industry, fisheries, and by the destruction of their preferred habitats, muddy and shallow waters.