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 |
inflorescence
(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 Torberts use of two negatives sandwiched
in the enlarger. The whole picture is composed of a drawing and two negatives.
I usually dont 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 dont think would happen if I did it on the computer.
The flowers are really about Torberts 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. |