Current Gallery: FlowerAbstractions ( piece)
Best to speak first about influences, or the impetus to photograph flowers. I remember when I first saw a Georgia O’Keeffe flower painting called simply, I think, White Flower. It was in the Whitney Museum of American Art when I moved to New York City in 1967. I loved that painting. Later there were the botanical photographs of Karl Blossfeldt & to a lesser extent the flower images of the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. These had in common with O’Keeffe’s many depictions of flowers, the fact that the image is much larger than the original in nature. So it becomes an abstraction. And, especially-as has been remarked of O’Keeffe’s images- an abstraction suggestive of sexuality. Well, no wonder, because the flower is the reproductive organ of its plant! As with humans, there are different male and female reproductive organs in flowers, but unlike humans, it is common to find both the male (stamen) and the female (pistil) reproductive organs in one flower. (These two Latin words show up in some of my image titles) So, simply stated, there is an endless fascination for me in both the beauty & the seductiveness of flowers. Enjoy!
Best to speak first about influences, or the impetus to photograph flowers. I remember when I first saw a Georgia O’Keeffe flower painting called simply, I think, White Flower. It was in the Whitney Museum of American Art when I moved to New York City in 1967. I loved that painting. Later there were the botanical photographs of Karl Blossfeldt & to a lesser extent the flower images of the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. These had in common with O’Keeffe’s many depictions of flowers, the fact that the image is much larger than the original in nature. So it becomes an abstraction. And, especially-as has been remarked of O’Keeffe’s images- an abstraction suggestive of sexuality. Well, no wonder, because the flower is the reproductive organ of its plant! As with humans, there are different male and female reproductive organs in flowers, but unlike humans, it is common to find both the male (stamen) and the female (pistil) reproductive organs in one flower. (These two Latin words show up in some of my image titles) So, simply stated, there is an endless fascination for me in both the beauty & the seductiveness of flowers. Enjoy!