Roots
Normally hidden beneath the soil, a vascular plant’s roots absorb water and nutrients, anchoring the plant’s body to the ground, supporting it and allowing it to grow. My photographic series, Roots unearths live flora, each with their roots left intact and exposed, to underscore our own connection to the natural world. Whether stiff and bound or strewn and scattered, I position, light and compose each of my botanical specimens in a way that allows it to take on its own anthropomorphic persona. While we are accustom to appreciating the natural beauty of greenery, roots have an unexpected elegance, which these images reveal. Juxtaposing roots and tendrils with the scouts and leaves they support also gives the images a formal symmetry that underscores their dichotomous relationship. I print these portraits on a large scale in order to draw attention to the rich, unique detail of each of my subjects and this aged background. Roots’ sensuous shapes and sharply rendered details remind us that we too are tethered to the Earth.