Nature’s Beautiful Decay Photographed by Tanya Marcuse

Existing between new life and decay, photographer Tanya Marcuse composes gorgeous still lifes on the ground beneath her in the recent series Fallen. Weaving together nature’s offerings with a deliberate hand, Marcuse constructs what she calls “a tableaux of an untended Eden,” marrying together dead leaves, collected fruit, insects, and plant material into tapestry-like works.

Working in the woods near her Hudson Valley home, Marcuse collects fruit that has fallen from trees in nearby orchards and freezes them to preserve the magic of their decay. She says she can work on a single photograph for days, sometimes weeks. Rich with pattern and texture, growth and decay, Marcuse channels Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, inspired “to integrate the three separate panels of damnation, paradise, and earthly pleasure into one plane.”

Images courtesy of Julie Saul Gallery.

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