A Bee’s View

Jane Wentzell

The sun is the primary architect of my images: plants will not bloom without sun, and in my photographs the sun reveals the forms of the flowers. Their geometric curves and planes are defined as their surfaces bear witness to the strength of the summer sun. Presenting these flowers in natural light is a testament to their origins.

So are china and glass formed by high heat, and only light coming from the extreme temperature of the sun can reveal their true colors and the reflection and sparkle that make them gorgeous to see.

These fragile artifacts – both the flowers and the antique vases – gain a reprieve from decay, being captured on film together, in their combined opulence. If flowers were not ephemeral, there would be no point to my pictures, which are a means to express admiration for their ineffable beauty, postponing inevitable loss.

Hydrangeas, peonies, roses, lilies, all carry a generative secret and this is their human aspect, rendered in experimental compositions of stability and optimism, just as all living-dying things of the earth are together under the sun.”