This year is the twentieth anniversary of my efforts to experience and capture some of the fascination of spring. Over eight weeks, I traveled to many gardens and photographed tulips, daffodils, sakura, magnolia, lilac, rhododendron, bearded irises, and roses. Highlights of that adventure fill the pages of You Must Believe In Spring (Hawkeye, 2016).
During the selection process of the magnolia images, I relived those wonderful moments photographing at The Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA) and at the Arboretum, Royal Botanical Gardens (Hamilton, ON). The images seemed to be saying “It’s time”.
In all the books about magnolia that I found, the color images lacked the excitement, the joy, the romance of my magnolia images. Recently, I examined Magnolias in Art and Cultivation (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2014). Oozeerally’s botanical paintings are detailed, elegant—but for me, spring light is missing, spring fragrance is missing.
For my portraits after finalising the setup, my last request of the subject is “Talk to me”. I wait until the conversation starts and then capture a privileged moment. For the magnolia portraits that follow I invite you to join the conversation.
Magnolia, the flower that welcomes spring.