Green Life, Green Death: A Portfolio Share with Lyn Swett Miller
A Between Bodies Portfolio Share
Green Life, Green Death with Lyn Swett Miller
Join us via Zoom Wednesday, October 23rd, 7 pm EDT
Join us for a Between Bodies portfolio share with Lyn Swett Miller. This tender body of work questions the essence of reciprocity between humans and the land while exploring the ways in which a ‘green’ death can reveal the beauty of our relationship between the human body and the earth’s body. Together we will explore whether photography can help us find redemption and joy in previously unmentionable settings.
In Lyn’s own words:
We buried my mother on a bed of compost she and I created together. Mummy was happiest outside, in her garden or in the woods, so a natural burial made sense.
For a woman who loved the ephemerality and magic of fungi, what could be better than to be nestled beneath the soil, embraced by the fungal networks that sustain life. Following her burial, we sprinkled more compost and flower seeds atop her grave. As time passes we continue to appreciate the beauty that grows above her.
In addition images from my mother’s final days, there are portraits of her tending plants in the gardens she loved so well. Together, this body of work reveals the powerful reciprocity between us and the natural world, a reciprocity that comes to life when we embrace it fully. In the end, life and death are all about the glorious power of transformation and renewal.
Lyn Swett Miller is a micro-climate photographer living in Quechee, Vermont. She has spent the past fifteen years trying to figure out what it takes for a suburban family of four to live sustainably. A founding member of the Sustainable Hanover, NH Committee, Miller found a voice for her activism through photography. Over time, compost became her muse and metaphor. She creates intimate visual meditations on the power of regeneration, transformation and renewal.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Miller has a BA in Art History from Harvard College (1988), a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Virginia (1995), and a Masters in Teaching from The Upper Valley Educator’s Institute (2012). Miller’s first solo show, “Compost Compositions,” was in 2019. Since then, her work has been in numerous juried exhibitions throughout the United States. Her most recent solo exhibition, “Compost: Muse & Metaphor” was at WinCam at The Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts.
Recent work includes “Meandering Mold: Messages from a Garden Library” and 13 Tons of Love, a weekly newsletter on Substack. Miller currently explores how grief can transform and renew our relationships to earth and ourselves.
Kinship portfolio shares are not critiques but a chance to share work within a highly supportive environment where you can ask thoughtful questions and receive equally thoughtful responses. We hope you will join us.
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