“Dark Flora is a series of still life studies using arrangements of foraged flora collected from Sussex Wealden woodland. Each composition was collected seasonally, often within one day, and foraged from within roughly one square kilometre of wild land. As such each image can be seen as a snapshot ‘portrait’ of the area at a certain moment in the yearly cycle. These arrangements are inspired by Victorian dioramas that were used to display taxidermy specimens in a facsimile of their natural environment – they present a curated, controlled and romanticised version of the wild landscape. Through these still life images and my forest landscapes I seek to create a ‘fairytale’ version of the natural world that evokes a sense of the landscape containing magic. Historically the landscape was related to in an animistic way – trees or flowers contained spirits or fairies, groves were inhabited by dryads or elves etc. If we can, once more begin to relate to the natural world not as a resource to plunder, but an entity to come to know, love and revere, we may rekindle a much needed sacred relationship.

Focusing on commonplace plants the images seek to draw attention to often overlooked ‘undergrowth’ that we often miss as we take in a larger vista. Using everyday specimens means that guidelines for wild plant collection are easily adhered to and where necessary plants are shot in-situ and not picked (e.g. fly agaric mushrooms) and added to the arrangement in post-production.” 

— Jasper Goodall