My work investigates the challenges and failures of portraiture in photography and the relationship between subject and artist. In this series of images I am exploring the emotional, mental and physical states of my subject by using the Motherwort plant to symbolise ideas of illness, healing, grief and intimacy. Working with the same subject over several months, I see the resulting images as a collaboration between the photographer, subject, and the plant material that allows the imagery to grow and develop.
I use a combination of analogue photography and printmaking. I am making my analogue photographic practice more sustainable by using my own plant-based chemicals to develop and handprint my photographs. Each plant contains its own unique properties that affects the development of the photographs, offering a visual language of the seasonal cycles of hibernation and growth.
