Benjamin Huseby is a Nowegian photographer
"Weeds & Aliens
is an occasionally arbitrary collection
of photographs of some rather wonderful, useful plants, normally considered weeds,"
“It is all at once a field guide, a photography book and an eco-polemic,”
"It is thought of as an introduction to the fragments of nature around us,
even in the most urban of habitats.
What is a wild plant, a native plant, an invasive or alien plant, a weed?
The story of weeds is the story of man and civilisation, of agriculture and migration.
There are no weeds in the wilderness,
but, then again, can we truly speak of wild nature?"
“Ever since I was a child I have been obsessed with taste, food and nature.
I remember vividly how I used to both impress and terrify other children
by eating raw stinging nettles when I was six.”
" I don't know how I first learned about what plants we could eat,
but I spent my whole childhood playing in forests and fields.
I think generally from growing up in Norway it was something ever present,
I was always tasting leaves and shoots.
I just loved the sensation.
Somehow I knew what not to eat as well. "
" The project started from me simply asking myself a question:
"What is it that I'm genuinely most interested in?"
So it is about a personal obsession,
but also follows in the footsteps of other projects I have done as an artist,
mostly working with ideas of ecology.
It also has a connection to food, another obsession,
as all the plants in the book have be used in meals for me and friends,
often in my studio."
