ROOTS
What carries on where my own roots began
'Roots' is based on the small ecosystems that exist where my own roots began. The personal landscapes of my childhood home mimic life’s cycles and our physical states as we move through this existence. As my parents aged and became more reliant on others, my children grew into their own independence. Presenting the landscape through a smaller lens of intimate habitats, and overlaying personal place and histories, the cycles of the natural world work to justify the reasoning for these intense stages. Flowers bloom, fruits grow, seeds blow in the wind as offerings and the soil welcomes it all back to start again.
'Roots' is a collection of environmental photographs, cyclical metaphors of the natural world, drawing from memories to illustrate the emotive aspects of aging and place. My photographic approach aims to create curious representations of the landscape that live in the space between the real and the mysterious. The images are captured with both flatbed scanners and cameras, and constructed to emphasize the drama and the detail of the small spaces. With a background in printmaking and photography, I am drawn to process heavy work and the building of layers. I hope that the slowness of my observation of place, and the slowness in the process of building the images, is echoed in the viewer slowing their own viewing and considering the cycles that touch their lives.
