Description

60 plates, “Carrying on his passion for producing exquisite imagery from both behind the camera and in the darkroom, Botanica is Tom Baril’s second monograph and follows his remarkably successful self-titled book from 1997. Baril, who worked as Robert Mapplethorpe’s printer and helped develop the lush quality of the late photographer’s definitive works, is now a highly regarded photographer in his own right, and achieves stunningly beautiful results that are at once classic and contemporary. Reproducing 60 of Baril’s floral images in a large format design that echoes the scale of his prints, this book harkens back to the early illustrated books of the nineteenth century and such classic tomes as the legendary Urformen der Kunst (1928) by Karl Blossfeldt, as well as to works by modernist practitioners like Adolphe Braun, Man Ray, and Irving Penn. Baril’s work though is distinguished from that of his forebears by his unique toning techniques and use of solarized Polaroid film. Singular in its grandeur and design, Botanica is certain to become a highly collectible book by one of today’s most acclaimed photographers.”