Contemporary Photography and the Garden: Deceits and Fantasies [Hardcover]

Thomas Padon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2004

Gardens have inspired artists for hundreds of years. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, photographers ranging from Eughne Atget to Edward Steichen were drawn to gardens for their beauty and their metaphorical associations. A century later, in the mid-1980s, an unusually large number of artists returned to the garden as a subject for their photography.
This lovely book devoted to the garden photography of contemporary artists accompanies an exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts. The photographs, by Gregory Crewdson, Len Jenshel, Erica Lennard, Sally Mann, Catherine Opie, Jack Pierson, and other acclaimed artists, demonstrate a remarkably wide range of artistic responses to the garden. Whether presenting it as a haven of tranquility and lyrical beauty or drawing on it as a dark visual metaphor for the manipulation of nature, these photographs express the artists' investigation of the forms, atmosphere, and symbolism of the garden. Essays by Thomas Padon, Robert Harrison, Ronal Jones, and Shirin Neshat bring historical and contextual insight to the fascination many contemporary artists have with this popular subject.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Padon is a Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs at the American Federation of Arts, where he has organized many major exhibitions, among them, Eternal Egypt: Masterpieces of Ancient Art from The British Museum; Degas and the Dance; and Wolfgang Laib: A Retrospective. He was also the curator of the touring exhibition Nancy Graves: Excavations in Print (1966), for which he wrote the accompanying catalogue raisonné, and Shadows in the Floating World: Silhouette in Ukiyo-e Prints (1990) presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Robert Harrison is Professor and Chair of the Department of French and Italian at Stanford University. He is the author of several books, among them, Forests: A Shadow of Civilization (1992) and The Dominion of the Dead (2003).

Ronald Jones is an artist, critic, cofounder of o-b-o-k (an office for experience design in Stockholm), and faculty member at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule, Frankfurt, and at Konstfack, in Stockholm.

Shirin Neshat is a New York-based artist whose photographs and videos have been included in exhibitions and biennial shows around the world.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 164 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810949555
• ISBN-13: 978-0810949553
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 12 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Garden as a Common Thread for our Finest Photographers, December 30, 2006

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Contemporary Photography and the Garden: Deceits and Fantasies (Hardcover)

Thomas Padon's fine book/catalogue (made to accompany a traveling exhibition of the works included) is one to please a diverse audience: garden lovers, art history devotees, and those addicted to the art of fine photography will all find this very special book one of endless pleasure.

The concept of the garden as the subject for a photographic essay is a unique one and the artists whose works range from the old concepts to the contemporary and utilizing all manner of camera techniques are some of the best in this field. This is not simply collected garden shots but rather images of the mysteries both immediately accessible and those more occult that require time and repeated exposure to appreciate. The dialogue of the book is provided with fine essays not only by Padon but also by such fine and creative minds as Robert Harrison, Ronald Jones, and Shirin Neshat.

But in the end the book is about pictures and these rare images are captured by such disparate artists as Catherine Opie, Sally Mann, Len Jenschel, Jack Pierson, Sally Apfelbaum, Daniel Boudinet, Peter Fischli and David Weiss to name but a few. The gardens are represented by locations from India, Japan, Europe, North and South America and are selected to investigate the symbolism both spiritual and cultural that these wondrous images capture.

Every aspect of this book is set with loving care and is worthy of the libraries of everyone in love with the secret treasures of the Garden. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, December 06

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars new ideas in photography, December 7, 2004

By 

Drago Alessandro (Italy) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Contemporary Photography and the Garden: Deceits and Fantasies (Hardcover)

I bought this book because I am much into garden and flower fotography myself. Anyway I think this book is interesting to everybody looking for new ideas in photography, in general. It is just amazing to see how different can be the approches to a same subject. You go from almost impressionistic views, to ultrasharp images, to compositions that recall maybe cubism in showing all different sides of the garden at the same time. If you like photography, buy it. You will find it deeply stimulating. And of course the photos are amazing and the print is just excellent.