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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Book of the Peony

Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
It's easy to be inspired by the naturally-sculptural shape of flowers; for me, my favorite flower is the peony and one of the aspects I love most about this variety is the full shape of the bloom that practically defies gravity. Each stem is like a tiny piece of art from the garden.

Published in 1917, Alice Howard Harding's book The Book of the Peony captures the organic beauty of my favorite flower in a series color and black-and-white photographs that deserve to be framed like art and once you see these images, I think you'll agree.
I'd love to see these images printed and framed à la those Irving Penn photographs I've written about here before. These images are in the public domain, so they can be printed without worry of copyright infringement. A PDF of the book (with many more pictures) can be download here.
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com

They'd be very cool blown up and printed in black-and-white, even if the result is a little fuzzy, wouldn't they? Here are some examples of great exaggerated flower photographs:
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
(via Lonny)
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
(a room designed by Katie Leede via Houzz)
Like the idea of keeping the images small and grouped? It worked for Lee Radizwell:
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com

Even though we're a few months away from peonies blooming in our gardens, at least we can enjoy them in perpetual bloom on our walls. 

2 comments:

  1. My very favorite flower. Ever. What a great book!!

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  2. Ditto what Elizabeth said. Thanks for showing some peonies on this cold morning. :)

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