I have been aiming my camera at what I call “The Beauty of Imperfection” for a very long time: dying flowers, old dishes and broken shells. That’s what these images mean to me; what some people call “fading beauty,” I find to be a beauty of imperfection, a richer, maturer beauty.
The aging flower becomes deeper and more saturated in color, a completely opposite texture reveals itself through the passage of time. Rather than throwing these aging beauties away, I prefer to let them linger in their vases, enjoying a stunning new bouquet. As my mother always says, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” —Becky Stayner
Bio:
I grew up in Kentucky. My father took me to estate sales and auctions where my love for beautiful things was born. My mother and grandmother instilled in me a love for good food, home-cooked and beautifully presented, whether in a picnic basket or on the dining table. The day before a feast, all the women in my family would gather at my grandmother Gan Gan’s house to polish silver, set the table, fix the flowers, and cut mint for the tea. The first picture I took was of a silver tea serving set. I shot it in our dining room, with natural light. I can still remember the way the light accented the lines of the silver, the light on the walnut dining table – the wood glowed. It was magical how the light brought inanimate objects to life. I moved across country to study photography at Brooks Institute. No matter how many stories or cookbooks I shoot, I still have an insatiable obsession with tableware and light!
Contact: www.sunnyhousestudio.com
