Fungi contemplates a realm largely invisible to the nakedeye, yet as essential to life on Earth as sunlight and oxygen. Working at the intersection of artisticexperimentation and scientific inquiry, Nicolai Howalt integrates different species of fungi into his creative and photographicprocesses, allowing these enigmatic organisms to directly influence the visual and material outcomes of the work.

Inside light-sealed boxes, Howalt has cultivated spores from selected fungal species directly onto unexposed analog photographic paper. As the fungi feed on the papers gelatin surface, they consume parts of the photographic emulsion, leaving behind traces that only appear once the paper is developed in the darkroom. The result is a series of photogram images created by the fungi themselvesorganic compositions that reveal the delicate mycelium networks through the gradual deterioration of the paper. Other spores have been carefully grown in Petri dishes and scanned in high resolution, producing images that unveil a vivid, microscopic world of fungal forms and colors that normally remain unseen. In another process, Howalt grows fungi into paper-thin layers and leaves them to dry over several months. Once dried, these fragile, translucent sheets are used asunique fungal negativesin the darkroom.

Each image unfolds as a quiet dialogue between humanintention and non-human agency: traces of life briefly lived on light-sensitive paper, marks formed throughnourishment and erosion, fragile imprints of growth and decay, presence and disappearance.

At a time when fungi are increasingly recognised askey to the future of ecological balance, medicine, and sustainable innovation, the book gathers Howalts experimental works into a poetic and tactile volume, designed by the award-winningRasmus Koch Studioand printed byNarayana Press, with accompanying texts by authorMorten Sndergaardand mycologistHenning Knudsen.

Fungi is neither a scientific catalogue nor a botanical manual, but rather a poetic and visual meditation on fungi and their role in shaping life and matter. More than a mere recording of specimens, Howalt makes the fungi an integral part of the artistic exploration in a direct, tangible and co-creative way. The work crosses boundaries between science and art and touches upon questions relating to existential ecology, time and the phenomenology of photography, as well as the history of mycology. A reflection on transformation, coexistence, processes of image-making, and the unpredictable aesthetics of living organisms.