Botanical Dreaming by Mark S. Johnson
I wanted to share my thoughts on "Botanical Dreaming" by Mark S. Johnson.
I first met Mark Johnson this summer while participating in an Olympic National Park workshop with Charles Needle. During the workshop, Mark provided each one of us with a copy of his newly printed book "Botanical Dreaming". Now, you should know that I am a very open and up-front person when it comes to sharing my thoughts. Upon seeing the cover of the book, I was concerned immediately that I had never considered photography of flowers to be "my thing". For the most part, my experiences in this area were limited and had never really passed beyond the documentary style photography of flowers I encounter during my travels. I wasn't put off by the subject matter. I wasn't worried about not enjoying the book. I was worried that I was going to see things in this book that were beyond where I existed as a photographer.
This fear was immediately justified as I began making my way through Botanical Dreaming.
Mark "saw" flora in ways that I had never conceived. This book was not about flowers and their beauty, in a traditional sense. This was a study of form, function, and visual stimuli generated by patterns expressed in the natural world through plant life on earth. It was about Fibonacci sequences abstracted into their raw elements of repeating shapes and vivid colors. It was about closed-form expression transformed into powerful, yet extremely simplified, images that take a once-removed view of the subject. Most importantly, it was about how Mark saw these things in his mind. Wow!
In parallel to the wonderful imagery is Mark's talented discussion of Photoshop as an essential tool for the creative photographer. Having experienced Mark's teaching style first-hand during this past workshop, I was reminded of his presentation skills, once again, in this book. Writing style and illustrations are excellent and well coordinated. This book leaves you with so many ideas that you might be tempted to set it down mid-chapter in favor of trying something new with your camera.
This book is a real trip and a very enjoyable read. I'm reading it now for the third time. Today, it is almost impossible for me to take a documentary style photograph of a flower. I simply cannot do this. So, I suppose you could say that Mark's book, and his photography, has affected me greatly. It has changed the way I see.
So, kudos to Mark for putting so much of his passion into his work, and so much of his work into this book! If you have not yet read Botanical Dreaming, then by all means do so. You can purchase Botanical Dreaming from Mark's website.
Jamie, JFP
|
|
