Thursday, June 29, 2006

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, June 2006


I'm usually not a big fan of flower photos. They're just too easy. There's no challenge in taking a photo of a beautiful object; you're just transferring its beauty to pixels. You may as well be taking pictures of your valuables for insurance purposes.

I think this is what Georgia O'Keeffe was getting at when she famously said, "I hate flowers - I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move." Of course, she made extremely unconventional flower paintings, and made people see flowers in an entirely new way.

In this case, the flowers are just one element. I liked the lines of the fence, the shadows on the steps and the purple color of the blossoms. I was trying to capture the shady summer feel of this Brooklyn neighborhood, where so much was in bloom all around.

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