Customer Reviews

Flowers

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Mendoza's introduction explains how he began photographing a community garden tended by his wife, finding that the zero incremental cost of digital exposures made it painless to experiment. The resulting book of images has a consistent style and ęsthetic that kind of grew on me. I must confess that I find most flower photography saccharine to the point of nausea. Mendoza's work is different. The flowers are all photographed from ground level--i.e. from below--with relatively short focal lengths. All are lit with flash, most about a half stop to a stop "hotter" than the sky behind them. The resulting images are almost disorienting, sort of a "Land of the Giants" perspective where the occasional passing bumble bee looks the size of a beagle. Some of the flowers are clearly past their prime, others immaculate. The level of well-lit detail demonstrates how bizarre many plants are when you really study them closely.

As a physical object the book is impressive for its dimensions, 12.2 x17.6". The fifty plates are therefore large enough to have serious impact; the color and detail really hit the eye. Some care has obviously been taken in laying out the images; the color palette and tonality of facing pages harmonize perfectly.
Well worth it if you like flowers; a completely different take on the subject from the typical studio close-ups done by Barbara Bordnick or Joyce Tenneson.

Geoffrey Wittig.

I just discovered the photographer Tony Mendoza this year when I saw his "flowers" book in the West Elm store, and I was totally smitten with his vision. The book is gorgeous and you should also see his whimsical photos of "Dogs". Amazing that Tony is actually color blind, who could ever guess? Hope we see more from this Cuban-American photographer.

Look through Tony Mendoza's book of flowers and you'll be mesmerized. These are not staid ho hum still life's, but fantastical landscapes where simple coneflowers morph into towering palm trees. Shot from the perspective of a small beetle crawling below, these awesome images are sheer delight, both: moody and magical.

Tony Mendoza's Flowers will captivate all who view it.

By ellen