If you were to see Janelle Lynch photographing out in nature, you would likely see her crouched down beside plants, flanked by her dogs, deliberately taking her time to craft her images. Her photography is mostly still shots of small snippets of nature but it is more than the twigs and flowers that make up the frame– her art is an invitation to see the slow beauty in everyday nature.
Lynch draws inspiration from her own grandmother who taught her to patiently observe her surroundings and from the poet Mary Oliver who, after spending an afternoon in nature wrote: “Tell me, what else should I have done? / Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? / Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”
Lynch’s book, Another Way of Looking at Love, contains many of her gorgeous images of small natural details set starkly against faded backgrounds. She explains that the title means that in this sense, we are looking at love not in the romantic sense, but in a sense of belonging with others and with the world.
Her images are vividly stunning. They are a reminder to stop and slow down to take in the beauty around us. If we are patient and observant, beauty can be found everywhere in our daily lives. Check out the link below to see more samples of her work.
