David Ward - Landscape Photography - Into The Light

Ferns fascinate me for a number of reasons, not only because of their elegance but also because their form shows how the complex patterns of life can spring from simple building blocks. The mathematical theory of chaos has given rise to the study of fractals. The best known pattern generated by a fractal is probably the Mandelbrot Set. This has an infinite depth of detail generated by the re-iteration. Fractals have now been used to model the forms of life, such as ferns, hence showing the simplicity that underlies complexity.