Blossoms unfurled - Brief Article

Sunset, Spring, 1997

San Francisco photographer Philippe Glade captures the essence of garden flowers on film

Photographer Philippe Glade sees flowers through his camera in much the same way that painter Georgia O'Keeffe depict ed them on canvas - deeply sensual, naturally abstract. Glade's images invite you on journeys - down and around swirls of petals, up stems to sun-washed blossoms, and into the very hearts of the flowers themselves.

A native of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France, Glade currently teaches French in San Francisco. He photographed the flowers on these pages in the city's Golden Gate Park. "I am attracted by the graphic forms, shapes, patterns, and rhythms of flowers. I am always looking for their sensuality. I move around the flower until I find its essence, then I focus in and fill the frame with it."

GLADE'S SECRETS OF FLORAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Glade shot these images using a Nikon FE camera and a 55mm Macro-Nikkor close-up lens, sometimes fitted with an extension tube for ultraclose work. He used Fuji Velvia transparency film because he likes the way it "pushes the natural colors a bit." All the photos were taken in natural light. Glade often uses a tripod to steady the camera, but for the photos of cow parsnip (above) and Iceland poppy (opposite page, top left), he lay on the ground and shot the backlit petals using the sky as a background. He prefers to shoot in the late afternoon, when the sun is low in the sky, but he also likes the diffused light of overcast days, when there are no shadows. When he shoots in the shade, he uses an 81B filter to warm up the image unless he wants to accentuate the bluish cast of a flower, as he did for the photo of Senecio mandraliscae (opposite page, bottom center).