Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Barbara E. Leven


rainboworchid, 2007
photograph, 13x19"

March 30, 2005: It is cold, windy and grey. While I am aware that the event is imminent, I do not yet know that my Father will pass in exactly eight days. In need of solace I pick up my camera and take a long subway ride to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a place I have never been.
The trees are still bare but when I look closely I see the promise of spring in the beginning buds. The wind ripples across the sleeping lily pools, the pale sun glinting on small tangerine bodies darting here and there beneath the shadows.
I begin to be transformed as I inhale the green air and am drawn into this garden world of nature “in captivity”. Through the camera I penetrate deeper into the secrets of this world and see what I could not without it.
I will have to come back, again and yet again. I will come almost every week for nearly two years. The seasons change and I am there, in the cold and in the heat. Armed with both a macro and telephoto lens I am compelled to record each new discovery — the lacy delicacy of the skeletal winter hydrangeas, the alien quality of the tree peony in early April, the whimsy of the goldfish in the lily pools, and the treacherous thorns on the bark of the African Aloe.
Each visit to the Steinhardt Conservatory affords me the experience of different climates and plant environments. In particular I study the Daubeny’s water lily, which is grown in a tub in the aquatic room. It is an intimate affair. I connect to this plant. I watch and record the mutable beauty of its birth, maturity, decline and death — and then its rebirth. I watch the tiny snails travel its leaves and the water insects swim inside the magic circle of the tub.
Through these visits, I will experience a spiritual metamorphosis. The weight of my own mortality will ease as I come to deeply understand the cycles of life of which I too am a part.

The photographs are my testament.

2 comments:

Wendi Gueorguiev said...

Dear Barbara,

I am intrigued, and love the sense of documentary, autobiography in what you wrote and how it relates to the work that will be shown. Looked at your website and love your eye, taking such a close look, and the surprising drama it finds.

Looking forward to seeing the series at the show,
Best,
Wendi

Wendi Gueorguiev said...

hey barbara, picked up the postcards,
beautiful!! i love what you did with the photo of my piece!!!

Thanks!!

Wendi