This will be the first year in nearly ten years that I won't be kicking off the spring with a trip to the beach. There's something restoring about shaking off the winter at the seashore. Maybe it's because swimming and sand between your toes and seagulls all seem like the definition of summer, and when you live in a place where winter lingers into April, a week of "summer" in March makes all the difference. This year it looks like I'll just be daydreaming of the ocean.
I've been admiring these gorgeous photo prints in
Jennifer Steen Booher's
beachcombing series for some time. These are just what I need to help me forget there's no ocean in my near future. I love the quiet orderliness to these compositions, the crisp background and wonderful textures, and the way unexpected shapes and colors pop against the grid she's set up. Framed, they'd look like museum specimen boxes, but I think there's enough of the unexpected that they don't feel sterile.
And in the spirit of spring cleaning, wouldn't this be an incredibly clever way to weed out a collection? Rather than holding on to a jar of seashells, why not arrange and photograph the collection, then send it on its way? I'm thinking this could work for my own collection of skeleton keys.
Do you have any collections? Would this method of streamlining a collection work for you, or is there something to be said for being able to experience your things in more than just a visual way?
[All images by Jennifer Steen Booher via
quercus design. Prints are $15 each.]
You nailed it - these did begin as I was clearing out my (enormous) beachcombing collections! Thank you for a lovely and well-written article.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it! Thanks, Jenn.
ReplyDelete