Beautiful Disaster

Beautiful Disaster 

Untitled 1
8" x10"
Silver Gelatin Print 

2010

Untitled 2
8" x10"
Silver Gelatin Print 

2010

Untitled 3
8" x10"
Silver Gelatin Print 

2010

Untitled 4
8" x10"
Silver Gelatin Print 

2010

Untitled 5
8" x10"
Silver Gelatin Print 

2010

Untitled 6
8" x10"
Silver Gelatin Print 

2010

Untitled 7
8" x10"
Silver Gelatin Print 

2010

Untitled 8
8" x10"
Silver Gelatin Print 

2010

Artist Statement

      What does one see when looking at cracked, rotting trees and mangled branches but destruction? These occurrences in nature, although they are forms of destruction, are some of the most beautiful parts of the scenery. A person will never remember a tree that looks the same as the next, so aren’t the trees that exhibit destruction more beautiful?

      My series Beautiful Disaster speaks to the instances in life when a negative can equal a positive, or when destruction can equal beauty. Just as theses trees experience unplanned events, suffer, and then create a more aesthetically pleasing image, humans go through a very similar process. We all endure painful events throughout our lives, but in the end, does this not make us more beautiful as human beings? Benjamin Franklin once said “There are no gains without pains,” and this is exactly what my series is discussing. Although we may not realize it, the painful events that we go through are what make us who we are. We would never change or grow without challenges in our lives, just as muscles cannot strengthen without stress.

      My images all have a similar dark quality to them. The darker images will help evoke emotions in the viewer, such as pain or depression, which will contradict with the beauty of the image itself. I also want the viewer to be able to look at this image of destruction but feel a sense of peace at the same time. 

      We all must take in all of our snapped branches termite ridden trunks and accept them for their true beauty. We all must take in our failures and out pain and accept our true beauty. So in the end, is destruction really destruction at all?