Erin Micic, Back To Our Roots (Animal & Nature 2021)

My six images are entitled, ‘Back To Our Roots’. This series looks at how there is life after death, and how our bodies can continue existing through other living beings on this planet, to help give them life and continue the circle of life. I have been inspired by succulents and flowers lately, they have given me a bit of a deeper appreciation for how delicate life is and how lucky we are to exist on a planet with so much life, that it in return sustains our lives. For these images, I wanted to talk about the circle of life. If a body decomposes naturally in the ground without a coffin, it will break down and become one with the soil. The human body, in a chemical and natural and almost ecological way, fragments itself into microscopic bits and pieces to feed the wilderness around it. I wanted to touch on this process of life and death in nature with my hand and my arm. If I were to be buried, I would imagine myself being buried in a wicker coffin. Such exist that have seeds and soil inside of them, so that when your body begins to break down, you provide the seeds and soil with enough nutrients that you help life thrive once you are no longer alive. It is an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional burial and it also supports the growth of our natural flora. Not many people are aware of such burials, and I believe that death shouldn’t be feared, as it is totally natural and is the gateway to more life if we so choose. My hands become one with the flowers, as if I was growing from the inside, as if I was a flower and as if I was in the DNA and petals and leaves of those plants. My hands become the petals, my forearm the stalk. I do not feel afraid to touch on death or discuss it. It is the inevitable and through examining plants, I have come to accept it.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.