“Bee habitat in cyanotype 88”
Bison bison, American buffalo
Artist: Sarah Red-Laird
Title: Bee Habitat in Cyanotype 88
Location: Southwestern South Dakota
Project: Bison & Bee Habitat
Photo subject: Bison bison, American buffalo
Materials: Cyanotype
Field Season: 2025
Composed: 2025
The Artist
Sarah Red-Laird is a melittologist, artist, conservationist, and founder and co-director of the nonprofit organization, Bee Regenerative.
She spends the colder months living near her Southern Oregon art studio and “field season” in Montana and South Dakota in her campervan/bee lab studying bees, bison, cattle, and the plants and soil that connect them.
She works with cyanotype to create images of the flowers and charismatic mega and mini-fauna she studies.
Sarah lives her life outside of the bounds of convention to be close to the natural world where the sky is big, the water talks, the air hums, and the ground rumbles with buffalo bellows. Through her art, she hopes to bring you closer to this world, as well.
The Piece
In the early afternoon of Sunday, June 1st 2025, I was rambling along on the side-by-side on my way back to HQ (my campervan) from a morning of counting flowers in our study plots at a “Bee and Bison Habitat” partner ranch in South Dakota.
I noticed a “bachelor herd” forming near one of the ranch’s badlands formations so pulled over to observe them grazing.
I find herd dynamics completely fascinating.
When not in “the rut” mature male bison pull away from the main herd and wander miles away from the females and young. The big boys are usually solo, but they’ve been known to gather into small herds.
Though the males are massive and intimidating, I find them to be so charming and usually quite shy; they are exceptionally less aggressive than mother bison with their young.
I followed the boys along as they grazed for about two hours, watching them carefully avoid the scarlet globe mallow (an essential flower for the drought-stressed native bees).
I loved this shot of them; meandering along in peace and brotherhood, just days before the rut would begin and they went on to fight like titans.
The Process
The “cyanotype” process was developed by British astronomer and chemist Sir John Herschel in 1842. It’s a photographic process that uses iron salts to create a deep blue image. Initially developed for reproduction of his own scientific notes and drawings, it was popularized by his friend, Anna Atkins, a botanist who published a book illustrated with photographs using the cyanotype process, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions.
My attraction to cyanotype printing may be related to my affinity for the scientific method. Though the subject of each piece is steeped in story and complexity, the image itself cannot be manipulated by perception. It simply is a print of simple reality.
This is the hook. As humans, we crave simplicity.
But agriculture is not simple, it’s complicated, complex, and contextual.
The striking cyan-blue entices the viewer to the piece and then invites a deeper inquiry.
I hope each viewer makes the journey to my website to learn about Bee Regenerative’s work with bees on agricultural landscapes and also where to connect with me as I travel around the country speaking on the beautifully complicated connections between bees, bison, cattle, ourselves and everything in-between.
The Work
The modern agricultural practice of monoculture creates habitat loss, drives climate change, and requires overuse of pesticides. This unsustainable practice is connected to staggering losses of honey bee colonies and native bee populations. Creation and conservation of refugia for bees on ranchlands is one solution for their survival. Holistically managed bison herds are currently being utilized to mimic the historical ecological impact these animals had on the pre-colonial Great Plains. We theorize the trophic rewilding of the landscape on bison ranches in South Dakota and Montana has restored nutrient dense habitat and created ample nesting sites for bees. To understand the potentially synergistic or mutualistic interactions between honey bees, native bees, and bison we are monitoring vegetation, soil, grazing behaviors, and pollinator communities on western plains and prairies. These efforts will examine bee nesting frequency, bee habitat, bee communities, soil health, and flower pollen availability and nutritional content. Our goal is to utilize the findings from our research projects to positively influence future conservation, policy, and land management decisions for both bees and bison through education, relationship building, art, and advocacy.