Brighton and Hove, UK: Primulas in the urban jungle

“Some gangsta primulas hanging tough in the urban jungle of Hove,” as described and captured by a Brighton resident.

I was delighted to find this photo in my mailbox yesterday. With it came a cogent observation about the plants that have been documented in the project.

Our contributor wrote, “I always felt that the shots fell into broadly two categories: “urban win” and “plant win”. I’m equally interested in both, but I have to confess I was always secretly rooting for nature – and in my shot nature is taking quite a kicking!”

Indeed, the original researchers in this project – Sara Bouchard and myself – have also discussed the struggle for dominance between plants and the manmade environment, as well as the instances of plants and humans living together in a mutually beneficial relationship. In fact, at our exhibition at Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn, we color coded all plants shown in the photos as “plant dominating,” “human environment dominating,” and “symbiosis.” However, we haven’t talked about this theme for quite awhile.

As the weather warms up and there are more opportunities to document urban plants on site, we can observe who is winning in the great battle of urban vs. plants. Sending our thanks out to Brighton for re-introducing this dramatic topic, and for sharing these gangsta flowers with our readers.