Hydrangea, 2008

I'm not sure if this is successful as a photograph. Conceptually there's a tenuous connection with the other photos I've been taking recently: random cloud-like shapes floating against a colored background field, botanical subject matter, the feeling of abandonment & diptych format… Yet I hesitated & almost didn't post it. If not for the air of neglect (abundant weeds, blemished leaves, faded blossoms & dead twigs) the picture could be calender photography, saccharine even. I can't decide if some sort of line has been crossed here or not. Still, I find the juxtaposition of the slightly overblown horticultural blooms with the glimpse of rampant weeds around the edges to be appealing. (Of course the flowers are so beautiful, with their almost artificial coloring I doubt anyone other than an avid gardener would notice all the encroaching weeds.) Pretty? Yes, but to my eye in an unkempt sort of way.

A few random slugs would have been nice…