Joel Leske, Leafy canopy (PLACES 2022)

My entires to this competition are my first attempts at presenting work in mono. I have learnt a great deal and have enjoyed experimenting with this technique. By far the most enjoyable part of this process has been realising that without colour, your imagination can take you to see what it wants, rather than what the image is. The first thing I notice in this image is how it somewhat resembles a map of Australia with the bight at the bottom and the cape at the top right. My imagination also sees sunlight reflecting through the canopy in a lush forest. I also see crumbled paper, unwanted, discarded. However this image captures a rotting leaf, slowly decomposing and returning to the earth. Zooming in shows the remnants of veins and the beautiful textures that once provided shade. It highlights that even in death, there is so much beauty in our natural world.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.