Natural History

They wished to flower, and flowering is being beautiful: but we wish to ripen, and that means being dark and taking pains. ----Ranier Maria Rilke In Natural History, plant forms integrate with portraits of women in the ripenes of their years. We created these images to represent maturity as a web of potent physical and psychological connection. We photographed these women in the attitudes of Roman portraits. After the application of a historical chemical solution, the images are overlaid with plants from our garden and exposed to the sun. Women and flowers merge in cyanotype impressions which overtake individual identity and speak of cosmic natural histories. The power of birth, death and regeneration pulse beneath the ephemeral beauty of the shadows of plants. Sun and season inscribe the passage of time.