The pictures were taken during the Centro Selva artist-in-residence centre deep in the Amazon forest of eastern Peru. There I discovered not only the abundance and uniqueness of the Amazon rainforest, but also the culture of indigenous peoples living along the Ucayali River. The Shipibo – Conibo tribe is famous for covering their faces, clothes, as well as the objects of everyday use with patterns derived from nature. The Shipibo – Conibo find inspiration in the wild. Depictions of the anaconda – a snake that lives in the Ucayali region – mingle with visions experienced during ritual trips on the hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca. Encoded in these designs, as well as in songs, are the folk tales and legends of the tribe.
I was inspired not so much by the decorative motifs of the Shipibo – Conibo, but by the idea behind the whole process. How the patterns found in nature can seep into culture and embed themselves in the products of human work and thought, functioning as a means of conveying a content.
I photographed leaf patterns in a manner that shows their ‘veins’ and the movement of the life-giving light – the process of photosynthesis.
Julia Popławska 
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