Seeing Texture, With Gratitude
A photographer's resilience practice
Happy Thanksgiving, dear reader.
A composty mass of dried leaves on the side of the road - - a tangle, strangely similar to Apple Crumble (above)…
and “Mixed Carbon” (below) from the same year.1
Has it truly been five years since I created these images…and had my first solo exhibition “Compost Compositions” at AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, NH?2
Textured kaleidoscopes in the compost pile beckoned.
It started in 2015 and continued year after year, the spent cores and peals (and all kinds of other cool stuff) begged for attention.
As I write, I can smell the applesauce, pie or crumble cooking…ready to share with family and friends, especially around Thanksgiving.3
Year after year, the piles transformed and nourished the earth which nourished me so I could nourish others.4
That cycle of regeneration, transformation and renewal gets me every time.
Yes, I love the various shades of reds and browns, but it has always been the balance of textures that brings me back, not just to these apple-related images, but to photography in general - - How is it possible to represent the ‘feel’ of a thing on a piece of paper or online?
With apples, I kept trying…and when brought together in one place, gathered here at this moment, they offer a narrative at once complex (so many tangles of people and emotions this time of year) and delightfully simple…
…because there is constancy with apples - - the smooth skin protects the delicate pulp within - - and there is variety. Like us…showing up here together on Substack, curious people searching for truths…yet are narratives are nuanced and unique. So cool.
When you look at these images, can you imagine your favorite apple? Is it tart or sweet? Does it crunch or is it soft? Let me know!
And so another Thanksgiving passes…We didn’t have apple pie this year - - There were delicious cakes instead - - but I am grateful for these apples and leaves and all the other textured detritus that presented itself for 13 years.5
It fills me with gratitude and joy to know that all I have to do is pay attention to the texture of things, even on the side of the road, to be reminded of all that compost is - - A richly layered and nuanced muse for my photography and metaphor for everything.
I hope these images inspire you as well.
As always, thank you for sharing your time and this space with me.
With gratitude for you being you,
Lyn
This week’s compost. Bananas - - Now there’s a thing worth considering…More on that another time. For now, if you know someone who might like what’s here, please share this post!
A healthy compost pile needs a 30-1 ratio of carbon-based materials, like leaves, paper and dried flowers to nitrogen-based materials like all vegetable and fruit scraps. Compost people refer to these as the 'brown stuff' and the 'green stuff' respectively.
While it was the colors of pomegranate skins, apple peels, and grapefruit rinds that first drew me to photograph compost, over time, I found the calmer 'brown stuff' an invitation to breath, rest and recover (Check out “Quiet Time” for more on this). In this way, compost became not just my muse, but also my metaphor.
It is interesting to observe that I am healthier, happier and find more joy when I have a 30-1 ratio in my life of calm, reflection and recovery to moments of action and excitement.
My “Compost Compositions” collection was on view at the AVA Gallery and Art Center in November 2019…it was going to be the launch of something exciting…until COVID hit…and my mother got really sick…and I got sidetracked…Until now…when the power of these images is starting to make sense to me.
If you are interested in having any of this work on your walls, please message me through Substack or go to my website to see additional images. Or, even better (and less expensive), become a paid subscriber to support this ongoing adventure. Just click this button and upgrade!
I hadn’t realized quite how many apple crumble/apple pie/apple crisp photographs I’d created until compiling this post. And I appreciate that the first was before 2016, the second during, and the last as we just getting through that first year with Covid.
It inspires calm to know that there will be apples, apple creations and apple remnants, no matter what else is going on ‘out there.’ Thankfully there is a surge of interest in heirloom apple varieties and the maintenance of diverse crops…I’m all in.
Full disclosure: I’ve only made apple pie a few times. My family and I really prefer crisps and crumbles with oatmeal and brown sugar and not so much crust…I don’t have any one particular recipe. It’s definitely a little bit of this and a little bit of that kind of thing. And we’re very big fans of applesauce, which I used to freeze. Do you have a favorite recipe for apples? Please share in the comments!
Here’s a link to the story of 13 Tons of Love. It seems that while showing up to compost for 13 years helped me begin my resilience practice, showing up to this newsletter and writing about my work enables me to continue cultivating resilience - - it’s all about ritual for me, and process - - showing up here, talking about light, color and texture and all that cool stuff that emerges at the convergence of climate, compost and creativity. So fun!
I love this! Compost is my word of the year. From starting a pile to composting life experience, and eventually...becoming compost one day. Gorgeous photos. I imagine them lined up on a long wall in a kitchen.
These are beautiful! The textures are so appealing (no pun intended) to my brain, they just feel like a long unwinding. They also make me think of making apple pie with my grandmother as a kid. Thank you for sharing!