Flower - Christopher Beane

A dazzling, sensuous celebration of color and form by the photographer whom Architectural Digest described as "the love child of Georgia O'Keeffe and Robert Mapplethorpe."

"When I agreed to write an essay for Beane's book," recounts Anthony F. Janson, esteemed curator and professor, "I had no idea I would be writing about one of the greatest photographers I have ever run across. It was easy enough for me to locate his position in the history of photography and art as a whole. I saw its importance immediately. Such an approach hardly begins to meet the challenge of explaining his work."

With intensity, vision, and expressiveness Christopher Beane captures the beauty, and the bizarre, of the botanical. He concentrates on the overlooked detail: the veins of dehydrated petals, the textures of poppy stamens, the infinite compositions vines create, and the multiple layers that constitute a ranunculus. In 150 photographs, Flower explores the precious and perishable nature of flowers-seed pods burst open, withered leaves curl, and frilly petals unfurl. Anthony F. Janson contributes a rich and engaging overview of the core ideas that define Beane's art, offering the reader a context for thinking about this unique work, while he chronicles its development.

A thing of beauty, Flower is the gift book everyone will welcome-a testament to the remarkable talent of Christopher Beane and his passionate vision.