Project Statement
L’orto di Ponte Florio revisited
Project Statement
L’orto is the Italian word for vegetable or kitchen garden. Via Ponte Florio is a long winding road, up a hill, just outside of Verona in Italy.
Linda has since moved, the garden she kept there has probably been plowed over, but for a few years I would go and visit her for what I called “Farm Girl Fantasy Camp”
It was a time away with a friend, a time to get my hands dirty in the soil and a time to make photographs.
The process of making these images was one way I could reconnect with nature. Sitting still in the garden I observed the plants and flowers as they grew and changed during different parts of the growing season. It was about me being in the garden, as a gardener but also as a bug. Time moves slowly when watching plants grow yet after awhile I was in tune with very subtle changes. This time became a mediation of sorts. You don’t see these things by just walking by or even when you water each day. You can appreciate the way a flower looks as the sun filters through early morning vs. later in the day and the changes that happen as a plant grows, produces flower or fruit and then begins to die, but only when you take the time to really look.
These images were all shot with a medium format film camera and originally printed as silver gelatin prints. The negatives have now all been scanned and 20 years later I am revisiting and re-editing the work. It’s interesting seeing this work with fresh eyes. Some images that I passed over have been included now. I have also chosen to print them all as platinum/palladium prints, a process that mimics the experience of the plants in the garden.
These new images feel earthy, sensitive and nostalgic. A reminder of what was left behind.