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Laden - Book Launch at Boston Art Book Fair 2023 + Pre-Sale!
anna leigh clem
Nov 6, 2023
Summary
My new book Laden will be released at the Boston Art Book Fair next weekend, and is now available for pre-sale in my shop. Laden explores personal anxieties and desires as reflected in the landscape surrounding an old farmhouse on Prince Edward Island. The photographs follow the lifecycle of a bed of poppies, sequenced alongside self-portraits and surrounding forest and meadows, picturing place as intrinsically linked with inner experience.
When we arrive at the Kidson Homestead in early July, the poppies across from the front door are large, hairy buds full of the promise of bloom, not dissimilar to my anticipation and excitement for this place—an old farmhouse surrounded by reclaimed farmland on Prince Edward Island—which I’ve had the privilege to visit in summers since my infancy. While we are not native to the island, this is where we go to come home. With the freedom to roam, I have explored its forests and meadows alongside my anxieties and desires, finding similitude in my surroundings.
As our time on the island slips by, the poppies’ petals wither and fall, and after a heavy rainstorm—nothing remains. Meanwhile, their hard, green pods prepare to ripen, to spread their seeds in the wake of our departure.
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