These works survey nature's uprooted germination and detritus throughout city streets, cracks in sidewalks and industrial parks. Each wild plant is photographed on the site in which it is growing. The scene is littered with the remains from the environment surrounding it. Isolated by a backdrop and highlighted with studio lights, the plants are native to their locations but each explains existences outside of its natural arrangements.

I am interested in photographs that exist on the edge of interpretation, images that provide an experience prior to a name or classification. I want my images to connect on an aesthetic and experiential level before they reveal what they have to offer. I strive for a balance between the documentation of reality and the aestheticized still-life.

Michael Vahrenwald was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1977. He presently lives in New York City. He studied fine art at The Cooper Union and Photography at Yale University. His work has been shown at a variety of venues including the Whitney Museum, The Walker Art Center, The Carnegie Museum of Art, the Yale School of Architecture and the Nerman Museum.

His work has been published in Blind Spot, Camera Austria, Flash Art, The New York Times and is featured in: "Looking Away, Phenomenality and Dissatisfaction, Kant to Adorno" by Rei Terada, Harvard University Press.
He currently teaches Photography at The Cooper Union, and is an Assistant Professor at The Hartford Art School.

Courtesy of Motus Fort