Art Exhibit
 "Looking at Light Through Flowers"
Photography by Joanne Koltnow
January 1 — March 31, 2008
WORK, MEDIUM, TECHNIQUE
What you see.
The work in this exhibit is organized into two collections: small botanicals and plants in containers. In the botanical collection, individual flowers or leaves float on a white background. Leaves or petals often overlap and that emphasizes the transparent nature of the plant material. The form, color, and size of the image looks quite realistic. In some cases there's a faint outline.
In the container collection, flower or leaf clusters are placed in transparent bottles and the whole image floats on a white background. The form and color are realistic, the leaves and petals may be transparent, and the stems inside the containers are sometimes are distorted by the glass.
When people see my work, especially the botanical images, they think they're looking at actual plants. Sometimes they ask if I've painted them in watercolor. They're usually surprised when I tell them that it's photography.
 How I achieve this effect.
My work is a form of digital photography. Instead of using a camera, however, I make my images on a large flatbed scanner that has a transparency adapter. (This kind of setup is usually used for scanning slides or larger transparencies.)
As with any scanner, the lens is beneath the glass bed. During a scan, the lens moves across the glass to record the image. In my case, the scanner’s lid also contains a light that moves in tandem with the lens. When I place a flower on the scanner bed, the lens moves beneath it and picks up the light as it shines through and around the flower. The result is an image that is lit from behind, similar to what you might get photographing through leaves into the sun or through a flower placed on a lightbox. Because I’m looking at the light through the plant material, this technique is particularly effective when the leaves or petals are transparent and overlapping.
A note about the technical details.
I’ve described how I do my work because some people are curious about it. However, since I’m an artist whose current tool is a scanner (and whose previous tools were camera and brush), I’d prefer that any technical discussion be secondary to a description of the art.
BACKGROUND, EDUCATION, TRAINING
I’ve been an artist all my life. My parents provided drawing materials and art classes when I was young and I took art electives in high school and college. Although I’ve also done ceramics and printmaking, photography has been of most enduring interest. I have studied photography with Daniel Hunter, Marion Patterson, Suzun Lamina, Brigitte Carnochan, and Jason Francisco.
I grew up in Philadelphia and have a BA in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. I’ve taught at the elementary and college level, run a public-access computer center, and worked in the high-tech industry. For the past 23 years I have been a self-employed marketing writer specializing in computer uses for education.
INSPIRATION, INTERESTS
Art interests
I love the black and white photography of the mid-century. I’m also drawn to design that is minimal and complex at the same time. For about 20 years I photographed people and made dark, often mysterious images. Most of them were black and white though I had occasional forays into color. This all changed about five years ago. I had bought a flatbed scanner in order to digitize some large format negatives my father had made as a young man. Playing around one day I put a flower on the glass. The resulting image—magnified and transparent—took my breath away. It also changed the direction of my photography. The images I now make—with their floating, watercolor-like effect—remind me of early French botanical drawings. When I add containers to the objects on the scanner, the image is unpredictably transformed.
Strange as it may seem, I’m still trying to achieve some of the mystery of my documentary work in my pictures of flowers. So while I’m after a pleasing form, I’m also concerned about how the lines and shapes in the image play off one another. One of my teachers said something about making a picture that needed more than a sentence to describe it. I think that’s what I’m after. And of course I’m interesting in making images where there’s something else to see when you to come back to look again.
Horticultural interests
For many years I grew summer vegetables and often felt that my large yard was a little out of control. Although I have always liked looking at botanical drawings, I had only a peripheral interest in learning about flowers and growing them myself. All that changed when I started looking closely at the flowers I scanned and went searching for new candidates. (My first scanner had a 4x5-inch scanning window, so I was restricted to tiny flowers. My current scanner is 12x17, so I have a wider range of possibilities.)
At this point I’ve scanned thousands of flowers, learned a little botany, and met scores of gardeners, horticulturists, and flower appreciators. I’m also becoming a more serious gardener. Although I still get most of my “subjects” from my gardener friends, I now grow some of the plants I most like to scan. And I keep seeing more I want to try.
Someone once said that people’s palates refine as they move from wanting the sweetness of soda to appreciating the taste of wine. I feel that my plant appreciation has similarly refined. These days I’m more drawn to foliage than I had been. And I notice plants much more than I ever did—their presence as well as their similarities and differences.
New directions
In July 2007 I started a project on dill, looking at the flower in different stages of bloom and at details as well as branches in containers. Now I’m looking at different ways to put the details together. I’ll include some of the new work in the library exhibit.
EXHIBIT INCLUDES
- Small botanicals, individual leaves and flowers
- Mid-sized botanicals
- Mid-sized arrangements in containers
- Large arrangements in containers
- A selection of my newest work that looks at aspects of the dill plant
OTHER EXHIBIT LOCATIONS
I am represented by Modernbook Gallery in Palo Alto and have participated in the following shows there:
- Le Jardin, a two-person exhibit, June and July 2007
- Summer Show, a group show, August 2007
- Organics, a group show, August 2006
- Spectrum 21, a group show, March 2006
I have also participated in group shows at Filoli (Autumn Captured, 2006) and WorksSanJose (member shows, 2004 through 2006). My work is in private collections, in artist books, and on notecards. Three images, illustrating an article by salvia expert Betsy Clebsch, were published in the Summer 2005 issue of “Pacific Horticulture.”
General Exhibit Information
Library hours: 10 am - 4 pm, seven days a week (closed on major holidays),
free of charge. Exhibitions of plant- and garden-related drawings, paintings,
photographs, and educational displays run for three-month periods. Twenty-five percent of all art sales benefit The Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture.
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