Tristan Duke

Tristan Duke is a Los Angeles–based artist whose work blends inventive craft, scientific curiosity, and deep environmental engagement. With a practice rooted in analog photography and hands-on experimentation, Duke investigates the physicality of light and material. In his Glacial Optics project, he forges camera lenses from glacier ice, transforming melting ice into both the medium and message of his art. His approach revives the spirit of 19th-century alchemy and optical science, rejecting standard precision equipment in favor of tools that evolve and dissolve. Duke’s work has been featured in National Geographic and exhibited in venues like SITE Santa Fe, and he has collaborated with scientists to integrate photochemical processes into his creative practice. Through his art, Duke invites us to witness climate change not as distant data but as a fragile, evolving image. (Website, Instagram, Facebook)