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"There is something about using the energy of the actual space when I am shooting that is very crucial to me."
 

One time I brought a portfolio of my work over to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, and showed it to a researcher whose hobby it was to photograph wildflowers. He made very pretty little black-and-white pictures. I showed him some of my flower pictures, one of them was this very pointy looking flower, and he was horrified. He said, “You sell these things? This looks like blood!”

–Stephanie Torbert

in•flo•res•cence (in/flo/res/ens,), n. 1. a flowering or blossoming. 2. Bot. a. the arrangement of flowers on the axis. b. the flowering part of a plant. c. the flower cluster. d. flowers collectively. e. a single flower. (The American College Dictionary)

Unique to this image is Stephanie Torbert’s use of two negatives sandwiched in the enlarger. The whole picture is composed of a drawing and two negatives. “I usually don’t do that,” she says. “Often people ask me if I do these on the computer. There is something about using the energy of the actual space when I am shooting that is very crucial to me. There is also something about the lighting that I don’t think would happen if I did it on the computer.”

The flowers are really about Torbert’s inner world and her feelings about the endangered environment. Human intervention in the rhythms of nature that change and transform the world are a part of how Torbert talks about her work and this photograph specifically. “The energy that takes place in the creation of all of that comes from a deep psychological source for me,” says Torbert. In this abstract picture Torbert maps out that inner landscape.

 

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Minneapolis Institute of Arts