These photographs were included in my multi-media exhibition, titled “Smoke Screen”. The gallery location was Richmond Virginia, a city that is home of Altria, parent company of Phillip Morris USA and famous for its brand of Marlboro cigarettes. In fact, the state of Virginia owes its historical existence to Nicotiana Tabacum, a remarkable plant that continues to plague and pleasure humans all over the world. The success of tobacco is still maintained by obfuscation regarding the health impacts on users, but even as we peer through the smoke, nicotine remains an irresistible commercial product. These images reflect on the history and ecology of this crop from seed to cigarette as an allegory for our addiction to fossil fuels, and the political and marketing tactics employed by multinationals who keep us hooked on their suicidal products. We are placing accelerating strains on the natural world in many shocking and foreseeable ways, and the work explores the ironies of society’s evolving environmental death wish. However, there’s also no denying the beauty and grandeur of bright leaf tobacco plants or the beguiling quality of smoke. I made these photographs in response to living in a city where the arts are always sponsored with tobacco money, in a world that is on fire, with the memories of my father, killed by lung cancer.