Australia is a place of extremes and even a swamp can dry completely. Trees that spend years partially submerged can develop adventitious roots that proliferate like knotted veins and arteries; very organic but also carrying a premonition of threat. These specimens of Melaleuca quinquenervia fell years ago because their huge bulk could not be supported by waterlogged soil but they did not die. Their aggresive grasp for life enables them to grow in any position. M. quinquenervia now demonstrates this same aggression as an invasive species in southern Florida where it chokes sawgrass marshes and converts open space into dark swamps.
Maris Rusis: Swamp Forms, Noosa NP
Gelatin-silver photograph on Agfa MCC 111 VC FB photographic paper,
image size 24.5cm X 19.6cm, from a 8x10 Tmax 400 negative
exposed in a Tachihara 810HD triple extension field view
camera fitted with a Fujinon-W 300mm f5.6 lens.
I'd offer to everyone, that these pictures allow us to experience much more than pictures of fallen trees that seem to defy death by thriving after being struck down. The've taken shapes that resemble the curves of the human form. However, there's also disorder. So what's going on? Maris just presents the picture as of what it is, the image of fallen trees in swampland. To go beyond that can be entertaining and fun. When a work of art allows us to bring our own minds to the experience of the work, there's a potentially rich opportunity for moving the envelope of reality to contain previously unthought of fantasies, we have, in a way, a space created for a kind of "gymnasium for the mind". While Maris' picture faithfully beings us the gesturing forms, from that point on, we are permitted to freely explore with our imagination. That, merely requires our brains to seize the opportunity to fill in the gaps! With so much artfully prepared and crafted by Maris in making his photograph, our own creativity requires no more than sitting back and relaxing, perhaps at most one glass of one's favorite wine, to bring these figures to life. To me, at the very least, these are lithe sensuous forms, reclining, bending over one another and more.
So take it in, populate the swamps with your own mind's fantastic scenarios. So, what do you see?
Asher