Artist's Statement

Flowers are, by design, seducers. They exist to perpetuate their own species. Blossoms are their reproductive structures. Anchored to the plant, a flower cannot go off in search of a pollinator. Instead, it must attract the attention of a pollinator and entice it to make contact. The bold physicality of a flower – its sculptural form, its unique color palette, its delicious scent – is something we often appreciate from a distance. Only rarely do we thrust our nose right into a flower to sniff and stare.

I first began shooting flowers casually, several years ago, in an attempt to hone my camera skills. I chose flowers because they were readily available – and static. It didn't take long before I found myself totally engaged by my subjects. I brought my camera closer and closer to the flowers, wishing I could experience their "monumentality" much as an insect might.

My current equipment is pretty basic. I have a Canon EOS 5D (12.8 megapixel digital SLR camera), six lenses (including the Canon EF 100MM F/2.8 Macro and Canon EF 70-200 F/2.8 IS EF), a set of diopters, an extension tube, some filters, and a good strong tripod.

Unless I am shooting a subject for a decidedly square format, I avoid cropping my photographs. I strive to compose my subject in the viewfinder exactly as I want it to appear in print. I use Adobe Photoshop CS2 running on a G5 Macintosh computer to make minor adjustments to my photographs, usually cleaning up a blemish here and there, adjusting an exposure, or balancing the tonal range. While I love using Photoshop to manipulate and transform photographic images, when it comes to botanicals, I use Photoshop very sparingly. I am not interested in creating illustrations of flowers. Instead, I present them as I "saw" them (with the aid of my camera) in space and time.

Please direct all inquiries to the artist/ photographer, Virginia Saunders.