Jamie Robertson’s solo exhibition, "soft heat," at the Houston Center for Photography presents a series of infrared photographs documenting Southern wetlands, including Caddo Lake and the Great Dismal Swamp. Using archival pigment prints and a zine titled "Alligatorwatergreen," Robertson utilizes thermosensational imagery to transform dense marshlands into ethereal, snow-like landscapes. The work incorporates archival figures, such as a liberated formerly enslaved man named Osman, to highlight the historical role of swamps as sites of maroonage and Black resistance.
This exhibition is significant for its application of Black Feminist hauntological analysis to environmental photography, challenging the traditional white settler gaze that historically viewed swamps as lands to be conquered. By focusing on the "insurgent swamp," Robertson connects the ecological memory of these disappearing landscapes to the ancestral search for liberation. The project serves as both a historiography of Southern wetlands and a poetic exploration of how landscape remains inextricably bound to Black survival and spiritual presence.