Of Bears, Bulbs & Berries is a photographic exhibition that encourages viewers to see the land as habitat and food source, therefore vulnerable to human pressures. These two distinct bodies of work by Jimmy Fike, Edible Plants and Horribilis, highlight Fike’s approach to landscape: not as scenery alone, but as a living system shaped by ecological relationships and change.

In Edible Plants, Fike photographs wild botanicals with both visual precision and educational purpose. The series grows from his interest in foraging and local knowledge. By identifying edible portions in color, he transforms the photograph from a purely descriptive image into a tool for learning - one that encourages a more intimate awareness of place and a closer relationship to it.

Horribilis approaches the landscape differently. Rather than emphasizing abundance and use, it considers absence. The series traces sites connected to the eradication of grizzly bears in the American West, revealing the landscape as a site shaped by ecological loss. Together, these two projects ask what the land sustains and what is lost when ecological relationships are broken.

Seen together, Fike’s photographs invite viewers to look beyond landscape as scenery and to consider it as a living system shaped by ecological relationships of use, and loss.

www.jimmyfike.com