Searchings II: Secret Landscapes of Flowers, Vol. 2

In Searchings: Secret Landscapes of Flowers, Volume II, photographer Barbara Bordnick continues a journey she began when she idly turned her new camera on a few flowers she had in her studio. At the time, she had no particular purpose, other than to see what the results would be. As she put it in a recent interview, "To me, photographing flowers was a sign that retirement was just around the corner." Two years later following the 2003 publication of Searchings, her first volume of flower photographs, Bordnick now acknowledges that "photographing flowers was meant to be." In this second volume of her work, she enters a new stage in the evolution of her unique relationship to her subject. On the one hand, she has equipped herself with the newer, more technically superior camera. On the other, she has over the course of this work refined her perception of what is, at heart, a flower's basic nature: its infinite variety of being. Reflected through the lens of her camera, the images are as much about this perception - and the photographer's sense of her own existence - as they are about the flowers themselves. As Bordnick describes it, "My photos have nothing to do with describing flowers. The photographs have to do with an emotional experience and a personal voyage."

In Searchings, photographer Barbara Bordnick enter the world O'Keeffe speaks of through the lens of her camera, and discovers scenes of infinite variety and beauty.

Once smitten, Bordnick confesses, "I became enveloped and absorbed by the indescribable color, the surprising twists, the curls, and the artful reaches of their bodies - their secret landscape." Indeed we see that close up, a flower, or even just a detail of one, has an almost mystical power to consume one's attention and imagination. As small and contained as they are, their unique combinations of textures, patterns, and colors reflect a vast, inviting universe - one filled with moments of intimate encounter, where something eternal feels glimpsed. Searchings is one photographer's personal journey to record these moments. With each of her images, Bordnick quietly underscores the unlimited mature and form of flowers, while celebrating their unique and exquisite beauty.

Barbara Bordnick is an internationally renowned fashion photographer who has been published in Harper's Bazaar, Life, Vogue Francais, The New York Times Magazine, and GEO. Her work is also in many private and public permanent collections, and she is a widely sought-after teacher and lecturer.