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  “There’s more to the garden than meets the eye – more life and death, more interdependence, more fragility.  These images of small secretive creatures, often juxtaposed against unexpected backgrounds, conjures up their impermanence, and to some degree their precarious place in the modern world.   Photographing them against a seamless background pulls their details forward and allows you to see them as objects of incredible design and complexity.  Like memento mori, they are reminders of our own mortality, impermanence and beauty.”

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The garden is a rich canvas of visual ideas, all waiting to be skillfully captured and evoked by the camera. With in-depth discussions on creative technique and technical literacy, The Photographic Garden is an inspiring guide for understanding the complexities of light and design in the garden and a primer on the latest digital image-making tools, from cameras to post-production software.

Professional photographer Matthew Benson shows you how to become a better, more intuitive artist in the landscape; helps you foster a deeper understanding of design and aesthetics; and encourages you to develop your own visual sensibility—through hundreds of his own thought provoking, evocative garden images. You’ll learn how to explore the garden with your camera; how to apply the fundamentals of composition, light, and color to image-making; and how to use digital technology to improve and enhance (and even rescue!) the images you’ve taken. Most of all, you’ll be motivated to see like a camera, work like a professional, and imagine and create like an artist.

Fine Art Limited edition digital Iris prints printed on Somerset 200g. archival watercolor paper by Cone Editions, East Topsham, Vermont and signed copies of Benson’s book (Rodale 2012) will be available at the gallery or by mail. For all inquiries please contact floreantprojects@gmail.com