Download or read book Contemporary Photography and the Garden written by Thomas Padon and published by Harry N. Abrams. This book was released on 2004-11-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gardens have inspired artists for hundreds of years. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, photographers ranging from Eugène Atget to Edward Steichen were drawn to gardens for their beauty and their metaphorical associations. A century later, in the mid-1980s, an unusually large number of artists returned to the garden as a subject for their photography. Whether presenting it as a haven of tranquility and lyrical beauty or drawing on it as a dark visual metaphor for the manipulation of nature, these photographs express the artists' investigation of the forms, atmosphere, and symbolism of the garden. The essays bring historical and contextual insight to the fascination many contemporary artists have with this popular subject.