Long since I have been interested in documenting the decay of things, nature, and humans. But I make images of decay so that the beauty of decay is obvious.
Decaying things can be wonderful imaging subjects, the way things fall apart, the colours that sometimes occur, and the unexpected graphical structures that suddenly appear.
Likewise with humans, many see old people as being ugly. I have the opposite view, as I regard the the wrinkles that spread on the face of an old man or woman as the manifestations of their lifelong wisdom. The thinning and graying hair contains its own beauty, and the sometimes twisted fingers display the tough work that these hands have done during many years. That way the decay of the body becomes a testiment to the persons life.
The decay in nature contains beauty in many ways. Among other the decay of a fallen tree creates the possibility for a lot of new life. The rotting tree is the habitat of many small creatures, some of which are becoming rare due to too much maintenance of our forests. Therefore to me, the fallen, rotten tree is the expression of a something very important: Death is necessary for new life.
That’s some of the reasons I’m so interested in portraying decay. You’ll find images in my gallery, and I’m also working on a book about decay, a book filled with some of my best images and description of why exactly a certain subject inspired me to take that exact photograph.
