Rice is the staple diet for over 70% of the world’s population. It is the most consumed plant for humanity.
Beautiful landscaping architecture has evolved around the cultivation of rice. Consequently, some landscape and fine-art photographers have made rice-terraces a motif of their work.
Yet, very little artistic work exists which depicts the rice plant.
I have been blessed to have made Bali my adopted home. Rice and paddy fields abound all over Bali.
I felt compelled to explore the rice plant through my lens. And I found great beauty in this humble plant. Not only in the plant itself but also in the way it grows throughout the rice planting circle.
From the tiny seedlings to the ripe – ready for harvest – plant. There is a lot of beauty to be uncovered. Beauty which normally remains unnoticed.
The outcome of several thousand photographs is a series of fine-art photographs titled: RICE
What fascinated me was the simplicity of rice as a plant. And also, the patterns and textures which the rice plants create in the paddies.
All fine-art photographs from the RICE series:
click on an image to enlarge
The Story behind the photographs
This series of fine-art photographs was grown out of being idle, confused and a deep-felt longing for peace.
It was my personal response to the first Bali bomb in 2002 when a senseless and utterly cruel terrorist attack killed over 200 innocent people in Bali.
Within an instant, Bali not only tragically lost so many souls but much more got lost on that day.
Although neither myself nor anyone I personally knew was affected by this calamity this tragic event touched me in ways I cannot put into words.
And this left a big void in me and so many questions. Questions about Bali, the world, myself and and and…
I would be lying if I’d say I made a conscious decision to take up an art project as a way of dealing with that difficult time. It was more subconscious urge to calm my mind and to cleanse my thinking from all the negative and sad energy around me.
So I set out on a quest to find beauty. Not just any beauty, but a beauty that came from nature. The kind of beauty that derives from simplicity.
Over the course of a couple of months, when also all my commercial projects were gone, I set out with my camera to uncover the beauty of a plant as simple as rice.
And I did not have to wander afar because I live in an area of Bali where rice and rice fields abound. All the photographs in this series were made just a stone throw from my adopted residence in Bali.
Truly’ DOMINIK
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