Project Statement
L’orto di Ponte Florio revisited
Project Statement
From 1998 until 2001 I would visit a friend in Ponte Florio, Italy and photograph her garden (l’orto). The process of making these images was one way I could leave my city life and reconnect with nature. The negatives were scanned and 20+ years later I am revisiting, re-editing and finishing this body of work.
Linda has since moved, the garden she kept there has probably been plowed over, but for awhile, it was time with a friend, a time to get my hands dirty in the soil and a time to make photographs. I called those visits “Farm Girl Fantasy Camp.”
Sitting still in the garden I observed the plants as they flourished, grew fruit or flower and then died. Time moves slowly when watching plants grow yet after awhile I was in tune with very subtle changes. These moments became a meditation, a witness of time passing, of beauty and of loss.
To complete this project I am currently making platinum/palladium prints, an activity that mimics the experience of the plants in the garden. The yield is a permanent record of a fleeting experience. It’s what I truly love about photography.
These new images feel earthy, sensitive and nostalgic. A reminder of what was left behind.