19-untitled 4, from Fig Trees
Fig Trees 4, from the series Fig Trees
Fig Trees, is a series of photographs of dried leaves on bare fig tree branches, along the Rubí stream outside of Barcelona. It is my first project in black and white; the tonalities reinforce the elegiac undercurrent in the work. The Rubí Stream was the site of a monumental flood in 1962, which killed nearly one thousand people. The images in Fig Trees simultaneously evoke a sensation of loss while suggesting a notion of togetherness. In some photographs a lone leaf hangs amidst bare branches. Other images show leaves curled together, as if clinging to the tree.
Fig Trees is part of Janelle Lynch: Barcelona (Radius Books, Fall 2013). The works in Barcelona are metaphors for remembrance and invitations to consider what prevails in absence.