Murray, a name derived from the Moray region of Scotland, means "settlement by the sea." It's no wonder that I am drawn to coastlines, the edges of things, wherever land meets tidal water. Birds-eye views of landscapes and time spent near oceans, ice pack, and marshes inspire the colors, shapes, compositions, and textures of my work.
Svalbard
The Holga film photography series "Svalbard" explores the Svalbard archipelago, far above the Arctic Circle at 78 degrees north. I made these images with Holga plastic cameras in April 2025 on an artists’ residency at sea. They show the grandeur of the high Arctic’s mountains, glaciers, and ice pack -- timeless landscapes and seascapes now shifting under the pressure of cascading man-made climate change.
These high-contrast black and white images underscore the extremes of the Svalbard environment, showcasing the bright white of snow and ice against the dark, rocky mountains and deep navy-blue ocean. They depict shifting weather, drifting ice, bright polar light, and the constant presence of an open horizon.
The Holga’s plastic lens does not aim for precision or sharpness, but instead creates images that are as unpredictable, dreamy, and surreal as the Arctic environment. The Holga interprets the landscape, infusing it with wonder and longing, showing us not just what Svalbard looks like, but how it feels to be there, witnessing where rock, ice, sea, and silence converge and the landscape is changing at an alarming rate.
Glacial Melt
"Glacial Melt" is a series of editioned, hand-pulled copper etchings inspired by my travel in the high Arctic. The experimental techniques I use to create the copper plates result in spontaneous and often uncontrollable fissures, mimicking the fracturing of ice sheets, glacial calving, and melt. Cracks, texture, and tone depict transformation and erosion. The process of creating each plate becomes a metaphor for the ever-changing connection between ice and water, solid and liquid states, and the cascading changes happening in the Arctic.