The Garden of Lost Things
Small delights in the field of the forgotten
Destinations offer us direction, but our trajectory toward it is the spice of life. Taking detours is important if only to add a little color to things, and sometimes when you’re lucky branching off can lead you to some strangely magical places.
There is a never-ending supply of nature to behold, but not all of them can be grand and sweeping. Little patches of earth, either crafted to be wild or long-abandoned have just as much to give and can be a window into the simple notion that a garden is really what you make of it.
Follow me, as we enter, and watch your step!
Truck of old, who has seen many roads, and yet found itself on a dirt path to nowhere. Its gangly, plant companions reach high above as if to provide it protection and hide its conspicuity from those who do not wish to explore or go looking. Finding things like this really alights my imagination. There is a folksy mysteriousness about it, that I cannot help, but create conjecture around.
Who drove this? Where were they going? Is it actually just a decoration? Am I falling prey to an Instagramable moment? Maybe all of the above, but no matter the origins its presence begs for a tall tale.
You didn’t think sunbathing could be so literal, did you? There is something so charmingly primitive about stumbling upon this scene. Invoking the idea of cleansing oneself in nature, going back to our roots, and carving out a moment of rest and reflection, with something that so many of us have disconnected from.
However, there is also this stark contrast that many of these photos evoke, in seeing such modern objects within such ancient lands. I love to work in dichotomies, even in extreme ones, and those were on full display while I ventured through the thicket of this place. A weird, uncanny convergence between man and nature.
A front-row seat to the theatre of wilderness and all its glory. Its overgrowth is not a threat, but merely a reclamation of what was once its own. The chair’s rusted legs and weathered panels a sight right at home within the organic pantheon of inhabitants I encountered there. Soon, maybe in the distant future, someone else will come upon this chair and see its legs have melded into the earth, becoming one with its previous foreign environment. A final assimilation between what’s always been there and what found itself there all the same.
It was not hard to feel as if I had stepped into some mystical realm, long-drawn up in a fairytale centuries ago. Communing with nature, as hippy-dippy as it may sound, is a vital practice for us humans and understanding our place in the vast expanse of life. So, much of my photography work is about this, partly out of convenience, yes, but through that convenience has come love and appreciation for what I once ignored.
So, just remember to take some time out of your day to find your own corner of nature to sit in, and maybe if you listen closely, you can hear all the stories it has to tell.
