Photobotanicus

My jumping off point is the historic botanical drawings, but my interest lies in the diversity of forms that plants construct. I look for a graphic structure or design and then play that structure against the negative space of the white background. Other times I will collage plants I find growing  together into an arrangement. Whether it is the interplay of graphic forms or an arranged collage, what comes through is my intimate contact with nature.

When I start a new session, I drive out into the field with my equipment where I spend a large amount of time just looking at what grows along the side of the road, in a meadow or under a tree. I collect common plants and weeds. My outdoor studio is simple. On the ground is a pad of paper where I lay out what I have collected, I diffuse the sunlight and create my staging area. I work outside all year long (some of my favorite pieces have been done in the winter). After many years of shooting film I made the switch to a high resolution medium format digital camera. The combination of technical elements has resulted in a three-dimensional quality to the finished prints.