I Will See You Tomorrow is a photography project documenting what women in the northeast of the United States and Michoacan, Mexico, are doing to restore habitat for native milkweed and protect the monarch.
Every autumn, millions of monarch butterflies migrate 3,000 miles from the northeast to spend the winter in the forests of central Mexico. They have never been there, but they know that’s where they belong.
The monarch butterfly journey is the most evolutionarily advanced migration of any known butterfly, perhaps of any known insect, but climate change and habitat loss are fast eroding the monarchs’ numbers.
In July 2022, the monarch was added to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to an 80% population decline since 1980. Milkweed is a tough and hardy plant, but climate change, habitat destruction and weed killers have rapidly altered milkweed’s ability to thrive, adversely affecting the monarchs.
Over the past year in the northeast I have documented Native Americans, scientists, local advocates, activists, and volunteers, all women, with one thing in common: sharing the joy of restoring milkweed habitat and helping the monarch population. As I got to know these women, I witnessed how this effort became a living metaphor for their self healing journey from domestic abuse, pregnancy loss and other traumas.
Women in the northeast are creating an invisible connection to Mexico and vice versa. In Central Mexico women are welcoming butterflies every year at the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, protecting the land from drug cartels, whose activities extend to land theft and the lucrative timber trade.
The next chapter of the project will document what women are doing in Mexico to restore habitat and protect the monarch butterfly.
My ultimate goal with the project is to create a multi language exhibit in both regions, bringing the work created in Maine to Mexico and vice versa. As the butterfly migrates from one country to another, the exhibit will supersede cross-border tensions by illustrating how efforts on both sides of the border are facilitating a resurgence in habitat restoration, monarch populations and most importantly a steadfast connection between humans and the natural world.
In Progress