Fred Mitchell
Fred Mitchell
If You Go, All the Plants Will Die
Softcover
9.6 x 6.7 inches
112 pages
Edition of 450
2021
Yoffy Press
If You Go, All the Plants Will Die explores failed relationships through dead plants. While living in Las Vegas and suffering through the stages of a deteriorating relationship, Fred Mitchell became hyper-aware of dying plants all around, mirroring and mocking his private life. He decided to embrace the absurdity and began documenting the haunting flora both in nature and in the studio.
Book review by Dana Stirling |
In his book, Fred Mitchell explores the notion of relationship, or maybe more accurate, the loss of a relationship throught the metaphor of dating plants that are surrounding his every day. These plants are his gate way for his emotional state, the way for him to portray this constrained relationship with plants, with objects that are not moving or going anywhere, they are there for what seems forever suffering and/or “heroing” through the thought surrounding around them, making it through regardless.
Relationships are complex, regardless of what type - professional, romantic, friendships, or just people who are forced to share the same space together at a specific moment in time. We as humans are conditioned to be in a pack, to be together, but for some reason this sometimes comes with many challenges, problems, heartbreaks, loss, happiness, and everything in between. These human connections are what make us who we are, and as artists and photographers, using the visual image is how we sometimes find ourselves decoding and understanding many of the emotions that are connected to these connections - for better or worse.
In this exploration, these plants become a metaphor. Yes, we can also look at it at a surface level view about the notion of death via the natural landscape in this urban environment. We can also look at it as portraits of people, of relationships that are suffering, or struggling but there might still be beauty and hope in them after all.
This project dances on the thin line between hopelessness and optimistic approach - we can see both sides on the coin in every photo. We are sad for these plans, but there is such a unique beauty to them that it also helps us think about the thing that are good in life that we should cherish as long as we have them.
A big part of this photo book in additional to the actual images are the block of colored paper. These pages are true colors with no data besides them being a color. In this beige, neutral tone palette that was chosen, this is the only color that this books has. The images juxtaposed are BW while the color is just this very cold and detached graphic element that creates a diptych between the two, creating a new dialogue. I can’t say for certain what these colors mean to the author and why they were chosen, but for me they add the feeling of a bold emptiness. A need to add context into a situation where the author is almost lost in his own world of visuals, trying to talk with no words around. Beacuse the paper used for this book is almost see through, it creates a unique visual where the colors bleed onto the black and white images that are behind them, creating a new type of color photography in a physical way. The use of this type of paper is also perfect for that feeling of death, loss and the fragility of these types of relationships.
I think the best way to describe this book is a poetic visual story of what it means to be human in todays urban nature.
