Grow slow: the comfort of pot plants in a hectic metropolis

British photographer Will Webster started his long-term relationship with plants when he was living and working in Moscow between 2005 until 2014. Intrigued by their recurrence around him, he captured them for five years before the project grew naturally into an anthropological survey. “It sometimes seems that Moscow is like a sped-up time-lapse animation: the sun zips across the sky and people scurry around doing what needs to be done, always urgently. The long-termism of a plant offers an antidote to the bling and ideological swings and roundabouts of Russia at the turn of the 21st century,” says Webster. But plants for him are not only a silent background for the busy buzz of everyday life; they are also a mirror for who we are. “Seeing a bedraggled cactus peering through a frosty shop window I realised that I too was far from home,” reflects the photographer.