AL: How did you begin the mycelium photo series?
AM: The Mycelium series came from my taste for mushrooms and distaste for the camera. I started listening more while trusting the sight less and less.
AL: Trusting the sightless and listening more is a significant shift for lens-based artists. What was your approach after this shift?
AM: During this time, I touched a lot of moss, slime, mud, ice, and tree bark. Three years later, I still have not touched my camera, and this period inspired me to approach image-making practices more meditatively and less violently.
AL: What were you drawn to the most when creating the images?
AL: Working with Circuit-bending office scanners and spending hours (mostly at night) in the forest contact—capturing fungi and moss, it felt like I was sampling the forest somehow. Essentially, I was making images by touching subjects; there was something playful and sensual about the process.
AL: What made you collaborate with Acceptance Letter on the printer series?
Working with mycelium, I often waited hours for the fruiting body to release its spores on the scanner bed. Then, the mushrooms created their 1-1 image by themselves and placed it on a 2D surface. Like this printing process, we used touch transfer to put it on the tight-fitting garments.