Ayo Banton’s series Into Dust captures the dramatic wilting of flowers in the

wake of an explosion. As with all of his floral series, Banton arranges the

flowers himself, drawing on thirty years of training in ikebana. He also creates

the dust mixture himself, painstakingly setting the conditions for each

photograph. The result is a celebration of contrast: order and disorder, calm

and chaos, beauty and decay.

‍

The series begins in media res, with Banton’s floral sculptures suddenly

enveloped by swirling clouds of grey-white dust. As the dust settles, the focus

shifts to the unexpected beauty of the wilted and increasingly monochromatic

arrangements. The spectral forms of the flowers evoke the Baroque tradition of

vanitas: still life paintings that used flowers, fruit, skulls and other symbolic

objects as reminders of life’s fragility. Banton is heavily influenced by the

Baroque and he translates the genre’s dramatic use of light and shadow into the

photographic medium, heightening each artwork’s emotional intensity.

‍

Banton first conceived of the series after seeing documentary photographs of

the devastating Haiti earthquake in 2010, and it has taken him fifteen years to

develop his response.

‍