I made these two images a few months apart and in very differnt locations, however looking back at them recently among the differences I noticed some similarities, not only in the shapes and patterns in the composition, but in the way they both convey a story of the seasons and the passing of time across the things we choose to photograph.
An old rusty metal sheet i came across hanging on a farm wall and the textured bark of a weathered tree might seem like completely different things, but they’re both part of the same story. Over time, the seasons and the elements leave their mark, slowly transforming everything they touch. It’s a quiet reminder that nothing stays the same forever.
The sheet metal is a man-made, industrial object a sign of human intervention in the natural world. Over time, it starts to tell its own story, weathered by years of rain, heat, frost, and wind. Rust creeps across its surface, flaking the paint, roughening the metal, and leaving behind jagged, uneven textures. You can almost read the history of the landscape through these marks every shift in temperature, every storm, etched into the metal’s skin.
Tree bark carries its own kind of story. It’s organic, naturally evolving, shaped by the tree’s slow, steady response to the environment around it. Winters bring cracks, summers thicken the bark, and rainfall encourages moss and lichen to take hold. Where the metal reacts and breaks down, the tree adapts and grows, layering new textures and scars over old ones.
Color plays a big part in these stories too. The rusted metal shows deep oranges, reds, and browns the classic colors of oxidation and decay. The patterns are sharp, almost aggressive, with peeling edges and rough surfaces. In contrast, tree bark tends to feel more muted and complex. Earthy browns and grays blend together, sometimes brightened by a bit of green moss or lichen. The textures are knotted and ridged, shaped by growth as much as by damage.
Both the metal and the tree bark carry the fingerprints of time and seasons. Rain, snow, and heat crack and corrode the sheet metal, just as cold, drought, and sun shape the bark. But while the rust feels like a sign of inevitable decline, the bark’s changes suggest resilience a record of survival through rough winters and dry summers, storms and calm spells.
And interestingly, despite their very different beginnings, the two surfaces can end up looking surprisingly similar. Wavy lines, cracks, peeling layers whether it’s industrial or organic, both are molded by the same forces of nature. Time, weather, and seasons leave their mark on everything.
In the end, the weathered sheet metal tells a story about decay about the way nature reclaims human-made things, breaking them down piece by piece. The bark, though, speaks of endurance. It’s a living record of growth, adaptation, and survival. Side by side, they offer two versions of the same truth: everything changes with time. Whether it leads to breakdown or to resilience depends on where the story begins.
