As gardens have always been a favourite and popular subject to artists, the first photographers were drawn to this theme. At the end of the 19th century early photographers produced several surprising compositions on this theme, using the best of that time techniques. By the first decades of the next century this subject quickly was abandoned in favour of modern subjects, being considered unworthy for a serious photographers. Only in the 80s the subject once again came into fashion, as the new artists developped a keen sense of reevaluating the role of the garden in everyday life, as well as it's infinite form and metaphorical associations.
The exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum is titled "Contemporary Photography and the Garden - Deceits and Fantasies". And it does just that, as the curators had the inspiration of selecting those works that at the same time exhibit the structure and atmosphere of the garden, together with it's symbolism. The organisers have chosen several works of 16 important American and European photographers. The gardens that they chose to put on paper range from those pieces of Heaven that everyone loves, tranquil and blissfull, to places of tension, where man tries to get together with the force of nature, overwhelming and crashing. For some the garden is a symbol of nature, with almost lyrical beauty, for others a strange and disturbing space, where man cannot find his place.
Photo : delart.org
June 2007
