Stumped Faces

STUMPS Stump – Definition Middle English (denoting a part of a limb remaining after an amputation): from Middle Low German stump(e ) or Middle Dutch stomp . As a noun: The bottom part of a tree left projecting from the ground after most of the trunk has fallen or been cut down. As a verb: (Of a question or problem) be too hard for, baffle; be at a loss; be unable to work out what to do or say. "Detectives are stumped for a reason for the attack." synonyms: baffle, perplex, confuse, confound, defeat. These particular meanings of the word “stump” are sourced to engage and stimulate the viewer’s interactions with the photos. I have come to see tree stumps as poignant visual metaphors with reflections and interactions of life with death and of man with nature. The dead stumps sometimes surrounded by virgin green life or growth emerging between cores of the dead wood itself, and occasionally with new growth rejuvenated even from the same the old apparently dead tree, now reborn with a second life. Some stumps cut flat to the ground with almost a two-dimensional artistic appearance, other stumps large, complex natural rotting figures often with a human facial appearance.