I grew up in the semi rural West Midlands. There were a lot of farms, mainly small ones when I was young. I was aware of the changes in the seasons and I looked forward to the different waves of fruit that we would pick, mainly through the summer holidays.

I’ve had an allotment for about 18 years and this has made me aware of the fruit and flowers that grow all around me in Hackney and Waltham Forest. A couple of years ago in the winter I noticed orange persimmons on a tree next to the High Street. They looked like christmas decorations. I decided to pick a few and see if they were edible, but they were not.

I thought about the futility of attempting to grow something so exotic and unhardy and doing it anyway, I admired the practical disregard of whoever had made the decision.

I decided to photograph the fruit and flowers that I saw, but to do it as if I were making portraits and set up a daylight studio on my balcony using sheets as backdrops. I decided to add some of the fragile and for the most part useless things I own that I cannot bear to part with or find a use for, so in and amongst these images are objects that I have either picked up while travelling or things that I have found myself owning after their original owners had passed away.