Coronam Florem, 2020 -

In March of 2020 during the Corona Virus pandemic lockdown, I started shooting a series of time exposures of flowers entitled Coronam Florem (Latin for Corona Flower). These images were inspired by the ravaging effects and loss the Corona Virus has had on people around the word. It extends experiments I began with the Seizure and Rose, and Bathtub series from the 1990s in which the subject photographed was submerged under water and refocused over the duration of the time exposure. The lighting and bio-zoomorphic references in this series also shares similarities with Samples. In Coronam Florem flowers, buds and fruits were shot underwater and left to decay. The images are contained by a perfect square and/or a circular geometric form. A void of darkness and water envelopes each flower gradually dissolving it over time taking it back to its original elemental state. The black square and/or circle enveloping Florem is a perfect Platonic shape symbolizing unity and the infinite cyclical nature of life. Because there is no beginning or end in a square or circle, time here, remains suspended. According to Austrian philosopher and mathematician Kurt Godel “Time is a circle that loops endlessly”. In Florem the camera is used to document the biological process of transformation that the flowers undergo. The title of the work is the name of the flower in Latin, followed by the name in English, and the date when the image was shot. To create a Florem image I shot 15 to 80 photos of the subject as I refocused the camera from foreground to background. I then processed all the images with a photo stacking application which compiled the stack as a single image with infinite or a specific user defined depth of field and focus. As in other works of mine Florem explores sexuality, cycles of birth, growth, decay and the effects of the elements and time on biological life. Through the artifice of photography I am able to generate impossible images that our vision can’t perceive through the naked eye.

All images are editions of five 24x24” (square format), five 21.5x21.5” (custom frame mounted circular tondo format) archival digital prints + 1 AP.

See video for Schnider Gallery show (3:41 min.)

Click the icons below to enlarge. In consecutive order is the 24x24” square piece, the 21.5x21.5” tondo mounted on PVC, a detail and an extreme detail of each Florem image.