Lynne Scott Constantine, 2020
digital photograph, 16″ x 20″

If I had to select a mascot for humanity as we try to regenerate our climate-stressed, overdeveloped world, it would be the lichen, an ancient collaboration between two simple lifeforms. Through teamwork, the lichen is a self-contained survival unit, able to succeed in the harshest environments without doing harm to any other creature. These six images are macro photographs of a selection of lichens found on three 15-year-old crepe myrtles in my back yard in Point Harbor, NC in early spring 2020. Although lichens mostly appear green and quite fragile when observed with ordinary vision, the magnification provided by the macro lens shows the robust structures and subtle colors that make lichens an endless source of visual wonder.