Normally a street photographer, I was looking for new photographic inspiration now that we are in stage 3 restrictions (the Australian version of a soft lockdown) during the COVID-19 pandemic. I can't complain, I am one of the lucky ones who can practice social distancing and has a home with a roof over my head to shelter in place and self isolate in.

The world seems turned upside down now. Our plans in disarray, new projects left incomplete, and the sad loss of friends and family. Nothing ever seemed as transient, unpredictable or impermanent as it does now. Which brought me to thinking about the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi. I am not an expert in Japanese culture or philosophy, but the idea of embracing the imperfection, the impermanence, the unpredictable resonated.

Over the weekend I went around the house and out to the garden looking for something authentic to photograph. I found it in the garden, on the ground and in the plants. Less than perfect but authentic in their form. Flowers past their prime, starting the decay. A bunch of berries mostly plucked and eaten by birds. A leaf fallen as we move into autumn or still on the branch but fed upon by some unseen insect. Is that not the circle of life?

And after this exercise in Wabi-Sabi Still Life photography, I hope I will more often accept things for what they are and not what I feel they should be.

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