Wild Lavender Iris
Connecticut

13×33″ prints are $1,500
20×50″ prints are $3,000

1987 was the first year I started using an 8x10” camera and was finally able to get the image quality I’d been striving to attain during the preceding 13 years. I had traveled to Connecticut to set up the color department at the Meriden-Stinehour Press, and spent three months on that project. Near the end of that time, Ruth joined me, having taken a leave of absence at her job as a Paramedic.

During my stay in Connecticut, I explored the surrounding countryside. At least at that time, there were pockets of wild countryside and this group of irises grew in a boggy area near a wild stream. Ruth and I went to this streamside area many times to photograph and this is the most significant image from that area. The area was quite undeveloped and we saw beavers (including the cutest little baby beaver) swimming in the stream as well as a (rather frightening looking) huge snapping turtle.

While I photographed this image in 1987, I was never very pleased with any prints I attempted to make. In 2005, I started using an 4x10” adaptor with my 8x10” camera to make panoramic format photographs. While I virtually never crop my images, I’m not adverse to printing some of my past 8x10” in the 4x10” format. (A convenient rationalization, not that a person needs one, is that had I been using the 4x10” format then, this is the photograph I would take. Hmmm.).

At any rate, I feel this image works best in this format and it’s amazing to me how perfect this group of Iris was growing in this wild, undeveloped corner of Connecticut. When I view the print, I am reminded of the perfection of nature and the bounty of extravagant, irresponsible beauty that goes beyond simple functionality.