the archive
01 — Field notes

The world is still being described.

Wilder is a field studio. We wade, wait and keep very still — then cut what we find into records anyone can read. The waiting is most of it.

scroll to open the plate →
02 — The count

Four hundred hours of standing still.

48
expeditions logged
longest: nine weeks
12
biomes surveyed
four of them twice
1,400
hours in the hide
most of it nothing
Giant panda resting against a felled log
giant panda · the long wait
03 — Three records

From the last descent.

The rail ran sideways to get here. From this point the page reads downward — one plate at a time, laid over the last.

take one — the others step back

Red-headed barbet
Red-headed barbet 04.71°N
Cloud forest, mid-morning
Eagle owl
Eagle owl 43.07°N
In flight, under canopy
Brown bear
Brown bear 58.31°N
The shallows, running
Red-headed barbet
Eagle owl
Brown bear
display · under canopy · the shallows · cloud forest · still water ·
02 — The archive

Now it reads downward.

Three records, opened by hand. Rest on one and its plate blows open by itself; move off the frame and it shuts again. The field notes further down say what the day was actually like.

platelocated

three plates · one season · no stitching

Mute swan Eagle owl Brown bear
Mute swan
Mute swan on still water, an autumn hillside reflected around it
plate i

Everything is under the line.

Above the waterline a swan appears to do nothing at all. The whole of the effort happens below it, out of frame — which is why it can cross the reflection of an entire hillside without ever seeming to try.

Three records

Brown bear running through shallow water, a second bear behind
plate iii

Nothing about this is quiet.

Shallow water is the one place a bear cannot move without announcing it. Worked from the far bank on a long lens, with a second pair of eyes on the animal behind.

04 — The dispatch

One letter a season.

No schedule, no digest. It goes out when we come back with something worth writing down — usually

no more than four a year