Becoming Earth: Soil, Life & Death with Mike Belleme & Lyn Swett Miller
Becoming Earth: Soil, Life & Death
Join us via Zoom on Wednesday, January 14th, at 7 pm EST
The philosopher and poet Wendell Berry poignantly proclaimed, “Soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all.” We will begin our exploration of Earth with photographers Mike Belleme and Lyn Swett Miller, both intimate with soil and the tender moments of life being made and unmade, composed and decomposed.
Mike Belleme, a self-taught Appalachian-born documentary photographer whose work explores the seen and unseen forces that shape how we perceive each other and the world around us, will share work from two projects. At Home with Death, an unflinching look at the natural process of dying, is a meditation on humanity’s place in a wider ecology. Mike will also share an ongoing project that features the traditional foodways of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and how these traditions are vital to keeping their culture alive.
Lyn Swett Miller, a Vermont-based photographer whose work explores compost and connection as forces for renewal, is sharing her projects Compost: Muse & Metaphor and Meandering Mold. While processing 13 tons of food waste in 13 years, compost became Lyn’s muse. The vegetable and other scraps invited her to dive deeper into the power of the soil herself. Along the way, the idea of Earth as mother became particularly powerful when Lyn buried her own mother on a bed of compost they created together. After her mother’s death, Lyn explored a different kind of relationship with soil in what she calls a Garden Library.
Together, we will ponder the depths that can be found in attending to Earth cycles and the roles photography can play in awakening humility and returning us to the ground of our being. Here we are invited to remember that the genus Homo is derived from the Latin word for “humus”—the dark, organic material that forms in soil.
Mike Belleme is a self-taught, Appalachian-born documentary photographer living in Asheville, North Carolina. Belleme’s work intimately examines themes of connection and community and the physical, mental, and social constructs that cultivate and inhibit connection. At the heart of Belleme’s work is a considered approach to contemporary issues that help us explore the seen and unseen forces that dictate how we perceive each other and the world around us. His first book, Mise-en-Scène is a collaboration with urbanist Chris Reed, exploring the implications of design at a variety of scales for urban life and ecology.
Lyn Swett Miller is a Vermont-based photographer and speaker whose work explores curiosity, compost, and connection as forces for renewal. For Miller, compost is both muse and metaphor. Her images offer visual meditations on the power of regeneration, transformation and renewal. Her projects include Compost: Muse & Metaphor, Meandering Mold: Messages from a Garden Library, and 13 Tons of Love, her weekly Substack that celebrates small acts of change and creative resilience. Lyn has facilitated multiple practice groups with Kinship, always offering space for deep reflection and play.
