When I became a mother, I felt for the first time a profound love coupled with an intense awareness of the impermanence of our existence. The natural world, with its unrelenting cycle of birth, growth and decline, and moments of intense and poignant beauty, echoes these emotions of love and loss. As I document my surroundings, I notice that certain elements in nature mirror those found in my children. The curve of my son’s spine resembles the pattern of ice on a frozen lake. My child lying on the floor draws to mind the grace of a tree bracing against the elements. The similarities in the photos of my children and landscapes are not meant to be exact, rather they are meditations on our existence in an ephemeral world. It gives me comfort to know that humans are but one part of this natural life cycle.

All images ©Alyssa Minahan