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There is intrigue to the Okefenokee Swamp – a mystical energy that renders these well-trodden waterways terra incognita to the first-time visitor. In this photographic essay, I’ve injected fantastical visual elements into my documentary photographs, using in-camera techniques rather than post-production effects, to portray both the environmental and the spiritual significance of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

The 400,000-acre Okefenokee Swamp is one of the largest intact freshwater ecosystems in the world and home to an abundance of biodiversity including rare and endangered species. Despite designation as a national wildlife refuge, North America’s largest blackwater swamp is still vulnerable. The refuge is protected, but its boundaries are not.

Trail Ridge is a geologic formation spanning the swamp’s eastern boundary, where heavy mineral sand mining for titanium dioxide has been repeatedly proposed next to the refuge. Environmentalists say that mining could lower the water table and lead to increased drought, greater susceptibility to wildfire, and the collapse of an entire ecosystem.

After a six-year effort by environmental advocates to halt a proposed mining project, The Conservation Fund stepped in to buy the 8,000-acre tract of land and mineral rights — ending the mining threat for now and safeguarding the adjacent wildlife refuge. Despite this major win, the Okefenokee is still at risk until broader protections are placed on the adjoining land and waterways.

Before embarking on this project, I believed that those possibilities alone should be enough to preserve this special land. Once I set foot there my thesis grew. If we allow for the destruction of this place, we lose more than its biodiversity; we lose a powerful, if unknown, spiritual presence.

I hope Trembling Earth captures not only what can be seen, but what can be felt: the unmistakable yet ineffably mystical quality of this primordial space.