Photography Atelier

Hope Schreiber

Unfurled: The Secret Field Guide to Berkshire Ferns

For those of us who have had the arduous task of dismantling a parents’ house, we know many feelings can arise. But almost lost among various objects collected by my parents over a lifetime, was buried treasure: my father’s Peterson’s Field Guide to Ferns. This well-worn volume contained meticulously pressed fern fronds, some with spores imprinting the pages. His attention to each frond was an act of respect and love. The book reminded me of my childhood explorations in the Berkshires, discovering unknown plants, including ferns, and getting glimpses of mysterious wild animals. Our family was a part of all this, immersed in the natural world.

Each fern frond was fragile, and their spores created ephemeral imprints that could be photographed only once. The slightest movement or breeze scattered the spores so their source was no longer clear. Yet from these spores, a new generation of ferns arises. The ephemeral endures, is resilient, and re-creates itself.

This Fall I followed my father’s footsteps along Berkshire trails and hidden paths. I pressed fern fronds, creating another generation of spore prints in notebooks. In the Spring fiddleheads push up the earth, completing this cycle of life. When attended to closely, the woods continue to yield up its secrets.

Artist Bio

Hope Schreiber is a Boston-based photographer who creates images from the natural world. With two biologically-minded parents, she was exposed to the woods and the ocean from year one. Hope has studied at Maine Media Workshops, the Griffin Museum of Photography’s Atelier, and with John Paul Caponigro, Ron Rosenstock, Alison Shaw, and Kathy Adams Clark, among others. She has been in a juried members show at the Griffin Museum in Winchester, MA, four juried group shows at the New Marlborough (MA) Meeting House, and a group show at the Massachusetts School of Psychology. Hope had a solo show at the Newton Free Library entitled “Ammonites: Signs of Life,” and has had two images awarded “Top 100” in the 2019 North American Nature Photography Association Annual Showcase.

Before becoming a clinical neuropsychologist, Hope worked as a writer and photographer for Science World Magazine, a Scholastic publication, where her photos appeared regularly in feature articles. Her photos have appeared on the cover of an academic book that she co-edited, and on the cover of a professional journal. Hope has a PsyD in Clinical Psychology from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. She has worked as a neuropsychologist at Tufts Medical Center for 30 years, and shows increasing dedication to her photography.