Inspired bymy childhood garden, which no longer exists physically, I have searched to rediscover lost innocence through my work. Beginning in spring of the COVID-19 lockdown, my partner and I stayed with my parents to escape the confines of the city. Using my parents’ present-day garden as my guide, I witnessed the full cycle—from the first spears of growth until their inevitable demise. I took photos of what I saw there, trying to capture the essence of place, and myself in it.
Entranced by the vibrancy of the summer season, I turned to the anthotype photographic process. Using the flower’s pigment to make light-sensitive emulsions, my garden photographs were impressed upon the botanical distillations by the sun’s rays. The results are like jars of preserves, emphasizing the photograph’s inherent stillness and marked "death" of the subject. This act of collection and preservation initially transformed the garden's passing into something more lasting than a bloom, yet due to the instability of both anthotypes and life alike, became an exercise in acceptance—of petals falling to the ground.
Spring Daggers
Looking Up
Scent of Mock Orange
Fading Peony
Tucked In
Shed Skin
Compost Pile
Watermelon Rind
Collecting Pollen
Pink Poppy (on Red Begonia)
Pink Poppies
Lone Spear
Sound of Foxglove
Downy and Lady
Petals Falling
Looking Up (on Agapanthus)
Thunderhead
Downy and Lady (on Pokeberry)
Divided
Black Swallowtail
Robbed Nest
Fallen
Sound of Foxglove (on Red Begonia and Hollyhock)
Eating Daylilies
Lone Spear (on Unripe Pokeberry)
Basking
Hiding Body
Holding On
Squeezed Lemons
Black Swallowtail (on Agapanthus and Spiderwort)
Dead Sunflowers
Looking In
Brittle Winter
Agapanthus and Lily Pollen
Dead Sunflowers (on Agapanthus and Lily Pollen)
Faded (Dead Sunflowers)
Anna Leigh Clem
Anna Leigh Clem is a photo-based artist working with book arts, text, video, sculpture, and other media to explore and portray her longings for innocence and connection with the natural world.