I wrote a poem to describe Simon Devitt's distinctive approach to architectural photography for his book All Things Considered.
In Ripe Fruit, artists are photographed at home to explore the concept of age and reaching your prime. This piece was written to capture and celebrate the fiercely independent nature of people profiled in the series.
Photography: Simon Devitt
Book & Graphic Design: Luke Scott
Our Hedge
It’s a question of being somewhere to be
knowing when to stay
still, sitting on storeys telling stories
making gardens, waiting to eat.
It’s when you see fejoas rolling
in-between hedges, a deck built by hands
roots that upset the pavement
or a porch, kissed with sunspots.
When a place is clothed in light (quiet arches,
slouching windows, a sharp entry),
it’s all stitched by the same needle
so you grasp for the stories in hallways.
Sometimes you’re successful, and catch whispers
and know naivety is like understanding
where you now stand is
as permanent as sinking sand.
It’s about history made with bricks,
season after layers of reasons to be built
realising how forever it all is.
Ripe Fruit
Here we have them
minds spent in bookstores
limbs in studios
associates to themselves
ten thousand hours
seems shallow
explaining their vision at a family BBQ
taking value in productive discomfort
turning up like coloured ink against the
blacks and blues of everyday documents
they’re like ochre fencing down a hand-paved driveway
or spring at the museum gardens
they’re like lightening in a bottle saved for later
or a flag designed the exact same shade as the sky
not everyone happens this way
reaching a place of self
sometimes people are just
people and sometimes
they are spectacular.
