Limited edition archival prints of photographs by Beth Dow. The photographs look at the English garden. Says the curator of this edition: “Beth’s recent addition of subdued hues lends this archival pigment print a layer of lusciousness, further obscuring the weirdness of manicured English gardens, in particular. Their slightly unnatural tint was lent by an oncoming storm that eventually rendered the light totally green. It seems, um, natural, that these works were made strikingly, unusually beautiful by something beyond Beth’s precise control of exposure, process and frame.”
About the artist and her work:
I lived in London for many years, where I developed an eye for unusual landscapes and a special interest in the mysterious, curated spaces of historic gardens. I usually shoot in black and white, and these photographs were a departure for me. Color in a garden is rarely important to me, as I’m much more interested in the effects of volume, mass, perspective and the ways these strange forms occupy space. I shot these in color to see what I could get with a reduced palette of greens, instead of my usual grays. They were shot in the late afternoon as powerful storm clouds gathered. The light itself turned green just moments before the downpour.
I believe the best gardens are far from pretty. Flowers rarely interest me. I have no romantic notions about rare botanic specimens, and nearly every rose garden I have ever seen has bored me to tears. I’m instead interested in the design of a well-considered space and how the artificial arrangement of natural elements can create something much more than the simple sum of its parts. I tried to capture some of that mystery here. I like how these are really just the “middles” of the trees, as they thwart an easy reading of scale and reduce the details that would provide context. We’re left with shape, texture and the subtle color of trees against the negative space of menacing storm clouds.
