Photographer Rachael Short is an Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the series ‘Potential to Become Another’. To see Rachael’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Potential to Become Another is a photographic series documenting evidence of human presence, the traces we leave behind and the trails that remain long after we are gone.

The figure in these photographs represents nature: a woman chosen to embody the vulnerability and perceived purity of humanity in contrast with the remnants of man-made waste. Placed within these environments, the exposed female form evokes a fear that she, too, could become discarded, left behind, forgotten, and neglected.

Yet there is hope within these “projects.” The discarded objects are not intended to convey negativity, but rather to acknowledge the reality of the waste we have created and its inevitable place within nature over time. What we leave behind has the potential to transform, decay, and become something else.

This project is deeply personal to me. Some of the photographs are self-portraits, and the series was photographed in a place I once called home. The work reflects both a personal relationship with the landscape and a broader meditation on our relationship with the natural world and the evidence of our existence within it.

Rachael Short is a fine art photographer whose work explores the beauty of light, shadow, and the natural world. A fifth-generation Carmel native and graduate of the Brooks Institute of Photography, she built a successful career in wedding and portrait photography before co-founding Gallery EXPOSED in Carmel in 2009. Following a life-changing spinal cord injury in 2010, Short reimagined her artistic practice, creating photographs with an iPhone using adaptive technology. She transforms these digital images into handcrafted fine art prints from digital negatives, blending contemporary image-making with traditional darkroom techniques.

Through resilience, innovation, and an enduring passion for photography, Short continues to redefine what it means to be an artist. Her work invites viewers to slow down, look closely, and discover beauty in the quiet interplay of light and shadow.

All images are silver gelatin prints. The warmer-toned images are lith prints, printed using Kodalith developer.

All images (Big Sur, California in 2010) and text © Rachael Short