Printing Photos onto Living Plants把照片印在活體植物上

Spanish artist Almudena Romero knew from a young age that she loved plants： “I must have been about four or five—my granny would call and say， ‘What do you want for your birthday？’ And I’d be like， an olive tree.”

西班牙藝術家阿爾穆德娜·羅梅羅從小就知道自己喜愛植物：“大概在我四五歲時，奶奶打電話問我：‘你生日想要什么禮物？’我就會說，想要一棵橄欖樹。”

With her inclusion in exhibitions in London and Paris， she’s showcasing her unique plant-based art that’s pushing audiences to question their hyper-consumerism whilst showing that it’s possible to create art in an eco-friendly manner.

羅梅羅受邀參加倫敦和巴黎的展覽，通過展示自己獨特的植物藝術作品，引導觀眾反思過度消費主義，同時向人們證明可以用環保的方式進行藝術創作。

In her four-chapter series called “The Pigment Change，” rather than developing photos on photographic paper， she prints them directly onto plants.

在名為《色素變化》的四章節系列作品中，羅梅羅沒有在相紙上沖洗照片，而是直接將照片印制在植物上。

“I just put a negative on top of the leaf and leave it to the sunlight， and then the image gets recorded on the leaf，” Romero said. “But I also print on living plants using a digital projector， and the plant makes photosynthesis with the light from the projector and records an image.”

“我就是把底片放在葉子上，讓陽光照射，然后圖像就記錄在葉子上了。”羅梅羅解釋道，“我也會用數碼投影儀在活體植物上投影，植物借助投影儀的光線進行光合作用，進而將圖像記錄下來。”

In a chapter from that series， called “Family Album，” she spreads watercress seeds on a stretched canvas， and lets them grow in the dark， before projecting a negative onto the watercress.

在該系列的“家庭相冊”一章中，羅梅羅將豆瓣菜種子撒在展開的畫布上，先讓種子在黑暗中生長，然后將底片投射到豆瓣菜上。

“The parts that receive more light produce chlorophyll， hence the dark green tones， and the parts that receive less light remain yellow， pale，” she said. “[It’s] exactly like in a photographic darkroom. But instead of having an enlarger， I have a projector， and my watercress canvas is my photo paper. That’s how I grow photographs.”

“菜葉上得到更多光照的部分會產生葉綠素，因此呈現出深綠色，而光照較少的部分仍然是黃色，顏色很淺。”她說，“這就像在攝影暗房里一樣，只不過我沒有用放大機，而是用投影儀，豆瓣菜畫布就是我的相紙。我就是這樣‘種出’照片的。”

The chlorophyll process adopted by Almudena was popularized in the 90’s by Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey， who projected photographs onto grass using a negative and light cast by a projector bulb. Allegedly， the British artists came up with the technique when they noticed random outlines of a ladder cast onto one of their grass installations.

羅梅羅采用的葉綠素成像法在20世紀90年代由藝術家希瑟·阿克羅伊德與丹·哈維推廣，他們使用底片和投影儀燈泡發出的光線將照片投影到草地上。據稱，這兩位英國藝術家是注意到他們的一個草坪裝置上隨機呈現出一個梯子的輪廓，從而想出了葉綠素成像法。

Despite being an innovative process， it wasn’t simple. It required a lot of space and preparation. Later， Artist Binh Danh enhanced this method by using photosensitive1 materials from plants， securing a positive straight into a leaf and enabling sunlight to bleach the photo onto its surface.

這種成像法很新穎，卻并不簡單，需要大量空間和準備工作。后來，藝術家丹平利用植物中的光敏物質改進了這種方法，他直接在葉片上固定正片，讓陽光將影像“漂白”到葉面上。

Learning from plants

向植物學習

Romero， who was raised in Madrid， used to spend holidays on her grandparents’ avocado farm in Valencia， in eastern Spain. Breathing fresh air， picking fruit， and learning from her grandmother about plants during her formative years instilled in her the eco-conscious values she embraces today.

羅梅羅在馬德里長大，以前經常在祖父母位于西班牙東部巴倫西亞的牛油果農場度假。在成長的歲月里，她呼吸新鮮空氣、采摘果實、聽祖母講述植物知識，這些經歷向她灌輸了如今她所信奉的生態意識價值觀。

“When you grow close to nature， it becomes a really important thing in your life，” she said. “Plants for me are important， partly because of the legacy of my family and because as a photographic material， it’s impressive in quality.”

“當你親近大自然，它就會成為你生命中至關重要的部分。”她說，“植物對我意義非凡，既來自家族傳承，也因為它們作為攝影材料自帶令人印象深刻的質感。”

But she concedes that her eco-friendly techniques wouldn’t work for all artists. “It is a niche2 because it produces ephemeral pieces， so it’s a lot more difficult to be financially sustainable when your art is ephemeral， but I guess it’s also depending on how you understand life and what you want to do with your practice，” she explained.

但羅梅羅坦言，她所用的這套環保創作方法并非對所有藝術家都適用。她解釋道：“由于作品不能長期留存，屬于小眾范疇，藝術作品轉瞬即逝，在經濟上實現可持續發展會困難許多。不過我覺得這也和個人對生命的理解以及在創作中想要達成的目標有關。”

She is not alone in her love for plants. In the past few years， Millennials have embraced the “plant-parent” craze， sharing photos and care tips on social media. But for Romero， plants are much more than something to look after： they’re beings we can learn from.

對植物的熱愛并非她一人獨有。近年來，千禧一代掀起“植物養護”熱潮，紛紛在社交媒體上分享植物照片和養護技巧。但對羅梅羅而言，植物遠不只是需要照料的對象，它們還是能啟迪人類的生命體。

“Plants have been [around] for way longer than us on the planet and they have succeeded in doing that without causing any extinction，” she said.

羅梅羅說：“植物在地球上存在的時間比我們人類長得多，且它們在成功生存的同時并未導致任何物種滅絕。”

Romero points to plants in deserts and arid environments that have evolved strategies that limit reproduction， saying they allow her to better argue that it’s not an “unnatural behavior” to choose to be child-free. “I am a person who doesn’t want to have children because of climate change，” she explained. “I simply don’t feel comfortable.”

羅梅羅指出，生長在沙漠和干旱環境中的植物已經進化出限制繁殖的策略，這讓她能夠更好地證明，選擇不生育并非“反自然行為”。“我是一個因為氣候變化而不想要孩子的人。”她解釋說，“我就是覺得不舒服。”

In her series “The Pigment Change” she questions whether maternity or parenthood is something “beyond one’s control” or a “question of will，” reflecting on plants’ selective reproduction strategies and opening a broader reflection on procreation.

在她的系列作品《色素變化》中，她質疑母性或為人父母究竟是“不可控的本能”還是“主觀的選擇”，反思植物的選擇性繁殖策略，開始從更寬泛的層面思考生育問題。

In 2020， she won the BMW Residency Award3 for the project and her work was exhibited at the renowned photography festival Rencontres d’Arles4， in France.

2020年，她憑借該項目獲得寶馬駐地藝術獎，作品在法國著名的阿爾勒攝影節上展出。

It’s not only about what we can learn from plants， though. For the Spaniard， we should also consider non-anthropocentric ethics （a philosophical perspective which challenges the idea that humans are the most important beings， emphasizing the value of all living organisms and ecosystems）， seeing other species as having their own agendas and intentionality.

不過，重點不僅在于我們能從植物身上學到什么。對西班牙藝術家羅梅羅而言，我們還應該考慮非人類中心主義倫理（這種哲學視角駁斥人類是最重要生物的觀點，強調所有生物和生態系統的價值），要承認其他物種擁有自己的能動性和意向性。

The artist explained that she sees photoperiodism （the way plants respond and adapt to light changes throughout the seasons） as a performance by plants. “Why do we tend to think that we only have these capacities as humans？” said Romero. “The problem is the perspective that we have that we think that we are very different until science proves the opposite.”

羅梅羅解釋說，她認為光周期現象（植物在四季對光照變化的反應和適應方式）是植物的表演。“我們憑什么認為只有人類才具備這些能力？”羅梅羅說，“問題出自我們的視角，我們總認為自己與眾不同，直到科學證明事實恰恰相反。”

Studies have shown that plants can be more complex than we may think. According to an article published in The Plant Journal， plants like Arabidopsis feel stressed when touched， which stunts their growth， while in 2019， another research group found that beach evening-primrose respond to the sound of pollinators.

研究表明，植物遠比我們想象的復雜。《植物雜志》刊登的一篇文章指出，像擬南芥這樣的植物在被觸摸時會感受到壓力，進而生長受阻；而在2019年，另一個研究小組發現，海邊月見草會對傳粉者的聲音做出反應。

Romero is collaborating with scientist Nicolas Langlade， with the help of AI， to use genetically different wheats and grasses to achieve a color palette sufficiently rich to produce a distinguishable image.

目前，羅梅羅正與科學家尼古拉·朗格拉德合作，借助人工智能，利用基因不同的小麥和草來獲取足夠豐富的色調，進而用于生成易辨別的圖像。

The artwork reflects on the human relationship with land and plants， our impact on the environment and our interdependency with nature. For Romero， this art-science project is like coming full circle. “It’s a combination of my family’s background because we are going to farm it，” she said. “I love my passion for plant photography， so I’m really happy about it.”

這類作品反映的是人類與土地和植物的關系、人類對環境的影響，以及人類與自然的相互依存。對羅梅羅而言，這一藝術與科學結合的項目仿佛一場輪回。“它結合了我的家庭背景，畢竟我們需要種植。”她說，“我很喜歡自己對植物攝影的這份熱情，所以做這件事我真的特別開心。”

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）

1 photosensitive光敏的。

2 niche（有特定的要求、顧客群和產品的）專營市場。

3寶馬駐地藝術獎，旨在為世界各地的文化項目提供支持，涉及現代與當代藝術、爵士與古典樂、建筑與設計等領域。" 4法國阿爾勒攝影節，創辦于1970年，是全世界規模最大、歷史最悠久、影響力最強的攝影節，有“國際攝影界的奧斯卡”之稱。