Botanical Portraits

On this planet we are guests of the plant world.

 

There are estimated (as of 2022) to be over 3 trillion trees alone on Earth, which equates to over 400 trees per human. This doesn’t include the remaining plant life from moss to flowers, grasses and all.

 

They are gracious hosts in the face of our arrogant, ignorant and parasitic colonisation of their space. They not only give us the air to breathe, but food. Without them, we would die. Our only gratitude lies in our death when our corpses degrade to provide food for them and others we overlook. Although a recent survey showed that 70% of people in the UK are choosing cremation over burial, thus denying our brothers and sisters a final meal of thanks.

 

As part of honouring my relationship to plants, I take what I call Botanical Portraits. Just like any family album, they have their place. I sit with the plant and try to feel its spirit through portraiture. I’m not interested in genus or species or Latin nomenclature. Each plant, although intensely community-minded in a way that shames humanity, is itself but an individual soul expressing itself in this world as – plant.

 

These portraits are conversations that attempt to replicate what I heard – what the plant shared with me, and now with you.