Weaving through day and night, we move between structural restraints and societal expectations in search of belonging. We meander around a crowded concrete labyrinth, orienting our own emotions in the form of aspirations and memories. In this dream, we navigate the city whilst the city navigates us... The Nature of Nature begins by merging views and ideas inspired by an emotional awareness with poetic texts referring to the internal landscapes of the mind. The series challenges how we may characterise the nature in the city, and in turn empathise with the organic forms as we might do with people. These depictions of trees, bushes and plants play an integral part in bringing attention to the city itself in the absence of time and people, either in direct contrast with the thick, unkempt landscapes of nature that surround it, or the city's relationship with nature as a metaphor to our own relationship with the city.

Nature grows to its own time. One can only wonder how a tree over thousands of years old has witnessed humanity grow and flourish akin to how we may witness a passing emotion within... In Paris, the architectural geometry of the urban landscape moulds the trees and plants that inhabit its parks, paths and corners. At the city's expense, trees are pruned and shaped for several reasons, sometimes to prevent obstruction, sometimes to promote aesthetics. Le Jardin à l'Anglaise is a Parisian park named for the reason that the trees and plants are left to their own accord, mirroring the various parks and trees around England where nature reigns free. The park directly contrasts Jardin à la Francaise, where trees and grass are shaped and pruned in line with Classicism expression, best recognised in Les Jardins de Versailles. Here, nature takes on an artificial appearance for aesthetic reasons, however in this series, the pruning, destruction or displacement towards these organisms are conveyed on metaphorical terms as they might in a poem, leading us to consider the environment's impact on ourselves and our inner landscapes, or our mental health.

“Your brain is constantly changing to meet its needs. It does this mainly in 2 ways by pruning the synapses you don’t use and by growing the synapses you do use. For as long as you live this neuroplasticity never stops and the brain is always changing.”
Johann Hari - Lost Connections

The act of photography is a cross-over between internal and external worlds. For the photographer, there exists a desire to mould how we perceive the world, manipulated by personal emotions and ideologies that is in part self-discovery. Humanist photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson describes a “plasticity” when defining the decisive moment, a product of the control in which a photographer has over an unfolding scene. Secondly, photography is part fascination with the external world and a separate desire to understand and share discoveries with others on a wider scale. Documentary photography is obsessed with its representation of the truth whilst its nature will always refrain from being completely objective when there exists a photographer behind the camera. In light of recent times, it has become apparent that a disconnection from the natural world is one of the leading causes towards why people can become depressed and feel isolated. We can become trapped in our own story and thoughts, becoming a prisoner to our own egos without regular access to fresh air and nature. Being out in full view of the natural world as life intended, complete with fears of insignificance, can give a deeper sense of connection to the essence of what it means to be human, to belong to a grander system. In The Nature of Nature there is both a vision of constraint and hope, that although we see how man has exercised his control over nature, nature can and will always find a way.