If you’re inclined to think that the garden is a quiet content place to kick up your heels and dream away the day, take a look at Linda Hackett’s photograph, Allum giganteum, on display at the Delaware Art Museum in the exhibition "Contemporary Photography and the Garden -Deceits and Fantasies," on view through September 1, 2007. Its vision of a Dr. Seuss world gone wrong conjures up an otherworldly view of the garden. Actually it’s a photograph of the flower taken with a pinhole camera.
Then there’s British artist Marc Quinn’s floralscape with its garish colors and depictions of perfect--albeit frozen--flowers. Quinn can’t really be defined exclusively as a photographer. One of his most notable works is a frozen bust of himself - made from his own blood. He used a similar technique to create Italian Landscape #3 in which he arranged flowers that otherwise would never be found together in nature, then froze them with liquid nitrogen, thus preserving their brilliant colors, at least until the machinery that kept them that way is turned off.
His image reminds us of a pre-911 world where beauty was only skin deep and technology was the salvation of all of our problems. But before you invest in a cryogenic machine, consider one of Sally Mann’s ghostly images from Las Pozas, Mexico- - all created with a broken lens attached to her view camera.
By contrast, Lynn Geesaman’s work shows a world in perfect order. The human touch is all too obvious in her landscapes of meticulously quaffed topiary. In her image, Hedge, Knightshayes Court, Devon, England, the world is in symmetry. Everything is balanced. Look very closely at the image and you’ll see extreme detail in a seemingly hazy print. She manipulates sharply focused negatives in the darkroom to give her work a 19th century quality.
Garden photography as subject matter for art photographers waned after the photo secession movement in the early 20th century, but had resurgence in the 1980’s and 90’s. Partly, according to Heather Campbell Coyle, associate curator of the Delaware Art Museum, when artists began to react to the environmental movement.
“Because gardens are works of art, designed with their own vistas and points of interest, it’s surprisingly difficult to take an interesting photograph of a garden—to create something evocative or atmospheric that goes beyond replicating the garden itself,” said Coyle. “These photographers have produced striking images that honor the beauty of their garden subjects, while creating something independent of them.”
The museum is offering a second exhibition entitled " The Cultivated Eye—Brandywine Valley Photographers," featuring the works of artists from the region including Alida Fish, Lisa Tyson Ennis, and Jim Graham. On display through October 21, the 39 works in this show display a wide range of responses to the natural world and a variety of approaches to the medium of photography.
Combined, the shows bring together some of the most visionary local, national, and international artists to redefine the garden in surprising ways. These are must see exhibitions for anyone interested in photography,and those willing to be shocked a bit by what lies beyond their petunias.
