Creative Garden Photography

The Garden in Black & White

When collectors are interested in my imagery of gardens, they often choose black and white prints. In addition, several of the garden photography assignments that I have had involve black and white photography.

It’s clear that black and white is very important to certain kinds of garden photography. Why?

For one thing, a black and white photograph is “art.” In the context of gardens, black and white has a long history of rendering the shapes, forms, and composition of the garden—along with the underlying idea of the garden plan—without the distraction of the seductive colors of floral beds.

Thinking in Black & White

Up until fairly recently, photography was only black and white. Color was not an option. Nineteenth-century ...