‘I wanted to photograph these grassroots communities…’
Jan Brykczynski has published a new book of garden photography – but none of the gardens he focuses on would win a medal at the Chelsea Flower Show. For his second book, The Gardener, the Polish photographer has sought out urban gardens in four locations around the world – Nairobi, Armenia, New York and Warsaw.
These are not hipster, urban-farming projects, none of them are attached to a micro-brewery or a bike shop that only sells fixies. Instead the book is filled with gardens that are changing people’s lives, growing vital food amongst the concrete. Water is collected in bathtubs, truck doors are used for fences, none of the gardeners spend more at B&Q than the value of the food they grow. Brykczynski deliberately sought out gardens that existed not for fun, or fashion, but out of necessity.
Winner of the inaugural Syngenta Photography award, Brykczynski lives in a large city (Warsaw) where he feels disconnected from the soil. This sense of loss drove his investigation into unofficial, rent-free attempts by people to reconnect with the land hidden under the tarmac of their environments.
The images can be read both positively and negatively. They clearly show the poverty that many people live with. Occasional portraits of the gardeners show the deadened grit needed to farm in such unforgiving areas. But they also demonstrate human spirit, inventiveness and the refusal to give up, even if the only land available to grow food is a carpark which doesn’t belong to you. Overall though, sadness prevails.
Working with large format negatives Brykczynski has photographed on overcast days, giving a consistency to all the images whether taken in the USA or Africa, Poland or Armenia. The similarities between the gardens in all four locations is emphasised by the layout of the book. Photos are untitled and shots from all the different areas are mixed in together.
In wet, green, England, these gardens do not seem to be Edens. To unfocused eyes some resemble weed-infested junk-yards. Yet in their own contexts as well as food they provide a tranquillity amongst the urban rush.
The Gardener is published by Dewi Lewis and includes essays by Malu Halasa and Jocelyn C. Zuckerman.
Brykczynski is a founding member of Sputnik Photos.
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