Compostion: Composition of Compost

A book of 17 photographs taken of my compost caddy, whenever I found the contents interesting because of the colours or composition of elements or both. The photographs were taken with natural light from a skylight which gives a variation in the speed and aperture used in each shot. This information is recorded on the facing page with date of capture. The camera used was always a Sigma DP2 with Foveon sensor.

Finding beauty in chaos and decomposition appealed to my anarchist and anti-art sensibility. Representing still life or flora at the peak of its perfection reeks of petrified ideologies. Decomposition suggests that the formal relations we hold dear are subject to a continual state of change. Matter readied for breakdown by benign organisms reminds me that the world is ‘on our side’. What is discarded can contribute to tomorrows new growth.

There are other ways of looking at these photographs. The seasons are partly represented by allotment produce and partly denied by unseasonal supermarket fare. Within these patterns the photos also give a partial picture of what we did and didn’t eat during the two years or so that it took to do this project. There is also a way of seeing them as painterly compositions of abstracted colours and shapes that may have been a part of the subconscious criteria by which I would choose to take a photograph at any given moment. Was it a way of negotiating an escape from, or renewing the compositional presets that every aspiring artist absorbs from his or her culture?

Or the photos could simply be used as an observational game to name the fruit and vegetables shown?

And oh, yes, we do have an allotment so there is that in the mix as well.