Story behind the image: The afterlife of roses

Usually when things are dead we think that they are ugly and no longer worth our time, but as a photographer I find them to be quite the opposite. Flowers frequently lay beside some of the memorial stones on campus, adding even more color and life. I passed one of these memorials several times a week and watched as newly laid flowers dried up beside the stone. As the flowers died they told a story of their own, lived their own life. To me, the contorted shriveledness of the flowers showed more beauty than anything else around me that was lively in the middle of the summer. I know it sounds dark and morbid and cynical, maybe even gothic, but it really is not, just look at all of the pictures of trees in the fall as they are losing their leaves or have already lost them. 

And though these flowers may no longer have life they give hope to future life, better life, becoming something greater than themselves.

Photo taken May 2014

Camera: Nikon D3200

Location: Regis University, Denver, CO