An Orchard





An Orchard 
2008 - 2024, ongoing


This series began with an orchard.Overgrown and unruly with beauty, calling out to me everyday on my way to work. It is a project spanning 16 years and various natural landscapes.

*More text to follow.


Written about image “S in the Springtime”

With the arrival of spring this year, I noticed for the first time a grove of wildly flowering trees on the side of the road on my way out to Mt. Finlayson. I watched them continue to blossom over the course of about two weeks, envisioning a portrait of my daughter among them. When her spring break arrived and she came home for a few days, we set out one afternoon just after the rain. One's aspiration reveals its multifarious layers once embarked upon. In turning up the road which seemed the best way to access the grove we found a garden of ancient classic cars...of all things. Totally unexpected. Many of the blooms on the trees had fallen with the rain, my vision of the springtime portrait of Sonja became something entirely new.

I go to this image to represent the shoot because of the sense of discovery I felt when I looked through my viewfinder, into the windows of this old chevy in the garden. I could see the layer of winter's empty hawthorns reflected in the weather stained windows, and the menagerie from the past in the old car another layer in between. Finally through to Sonja’s eternal gaze ... and an offshoot of yellow blossoms from the Forsythia tree nearby, a wand in her hand. This is what springtime really feels like I thought to myself. I felt like I had accidentally caught it peering out from the fringe of winter, through Sonja's eyes.
A transformation forthcoming.