shashasha

"For over thirty years I have been growing vegetables on a plot of uncultivated land near my home. The pleasure of homegrwon vegetables is that, quite unlike the standardized produce sold on the market, their forms are varied and even humorous. Follwing each of them through changes as they grow from a tiny seen to a large plant. I then relish them gratefully. Waching as some of the vegetables wilt in the field is indeed what in Buddhism is called the doctrine of the enlightenment of plants and trees - belief in the oneness of life and death and that all things attain Buddhahood."

• Excerpt from Shunji Dodo's a vegetable garden, sakura.....

Captured using a Polaroid 55 4.5 camera, Shunji Dodo's a vegetable garden, sakura, is both an ode to time and an exploration into the relationship between life and death. Photographing his vegetables and their growth, Shunji Dodo's individual potraits of his harvest reflect and convey the unique attributes of each plant, metaphorically representing our very own subtle differences through the images that capture the sakura blossoms. Here the deterioration of each negative coupled with the symbolisms of spring reflect a narrative which captures our interconnectedness to both nature through our shared relationship to both mortality and time.