The Garden
The garden consists of photographs of food I grew and fauna killed most often by my cat. The project came about while learning how to grow food in my backyard between 2005-2007. Out of ignorance and then wonder of what nature does with ease, came photographs of the products of my labor, some successes, some failures and others partially eaten before I could pick them.
I felt at the time a fundamental gap in my education was the knowledge of how to grow food and how to identify what is in season when. Food production ignorance struck me as dangerous both personally and to the process of governing a people. Priorities of consumption and energy used seem a logical consideration in all quality of life decision-making.
While planting vegetables and fruits for myself, I was mindful to also plant Southern California natives to minimize water use and provide for other species that would be had I not been. Though the honeybees are not native, the Matilija Poppies are, and through this discovery I found my next photographic exploration: endangered species. In the book Collapse, Jared Diamond repeatedly shows relationships between land use and the end of past civilizations. In each case there is species extinction before human extinction.
