6x6 John Norris

6x6 Urs Albrecht

John Norris

A SMALL WORLD

Ten years ago I began a three year photographic project to create a collection of alpine flower photographs. I used a small white card background, one lens and whatever natural light was available. It was a personal project with no time limit or geographical boundaries.

I have since relocated to Dorset and live on the Jurassic coastline and in March of 2019 when the Covid lockdown began the world available to me as a photographer was reduced in an instant to a small patch of land around my house.

The old garden that my partner Anne and I had renovated was now coming into bloom. Without consciously deciding to make another extended collection of images I began photographing our plants and as I had previously decided with the alpine plants I chose again to capture them all in situ.

Some flowers I like to shoot before or after they are in their prime finding these stages more inspiring. This time I used flash balanced with natural light to create a black background. On occasion I made sorties after nightfall to shoot roses in the dark, rewarded not just with another picture but the full power of their wonderful scent.

Although my world had shrunk to a small cultivated space seen through the passing seasons of a challenging year, I had found solace in discovering the one hundred and fifty photographs there waiting for me.