TERRAIN
Quiet Fruit: Photographs
By Melinda Hurst Frye
August 8, 2024
”Rooted in curiosity, Melinda Hurst Frye’s photographs intertwine science and art to explore partnerships and hint at the invisible.”
“Their beginnings are silent as their threads move through the soil beneath the surface. Stretching, seeking, and speaking a language that I do not hear. The cycle calls for a union with time, nearby roots, and the decay of the forest floor. As their fruits emerge, they will exhale their spores into the air to perform the process once more.
In the summer of 2020, I moved with my family to my childhood home, adjacent to Saint Edward State Park, outside of Seattle, Washington. I walk the same trails I explored as a child, but now with my children. Together, we forage, greet the ferns, and slow down to watch the changing light and smell the earth. We observe the shifting seasons, from mushrooms bursting on fallen logs to the forest’s simultaneous growth and decay. My photographs aim to capture the evolving ecology along the trail I’ve walked throughout my life—a trail that rises and falls with the seasons and nourishes the soil that grows the wonder that surrounds our family. The subjects in these photographs were found near this trail and brought into my studio to rest on a flatbed scanner and release their spores, sometimes over days.…”