Ghostly images of leaves impressed upon the urban nature landscape.
The Ghost Leaves series of images was inspired by noticing the impressions left by leaves on a concrete sidewalk, which had been replaced a couple of years earlier, outside my home. It was made of a different material than the seventy year old concrete sidewalks, which ordinarily accompany buildings in our garden apartment complex. I noticed after rainy weather the images of leaves were left on the concrete by some mysterious process of duplication. This new concrete was whiter, softer with less aggregate than the original material. Either the concrete recieved the stain from the leaves more easily or reacted with the composition of the leaves in some way produdce these mysterious images.
The photographs are not some Photoshop manipulation. The twigs and leaf bits were not arranged, but found in their original locations. No painting of leaf impressions was done. Only adjustments for sharpness, contrast and color were made to improve the quality of the image. They are real. Believe.
The series began with my trusty Olympus D340R. Despite the noisy 1.3 megapixel sensor, the spirit of the scene was captured well. As the years have gone by, and I have begun to use more capable cameras, I have come to believe a better camera would have rendered the image with too much fidelity to convey the feeling of those original images. At some point I had to just accept that I captured the moment with the camera I had, whether it's a Holga or D340R and recognize the pictures are compelling, perhaps better for it.
I try to include a real leaf in the frame with the leaf impressions to emphasize their status as duplicates and to contrast the real leaf with the ghostly impression. The bits on the sidewalk, a leaf here and there, the impressions of leaves, are like found objects to me. I prefer to leave them as found and do not arrange them for the camera. I hope you enjoy the photographs as much as I do.