Listera cordata- Heart-leaved Twayblade 1931

This photogravure of Listera cordata, or Heart-leaved Twayblade, was made by Edwin Hale Lincoln. Two slender stalks ascend with quiet, deliberate motion, their pale bodies captured in a moment of stillness. I wonder what was on Lincoln’s mind when he took this picture. Maybe he was thinking about the fragility of life, or the quiet strength of nature. I imagine him carefully arranging the composition, adjusting the light to capture the delicate details. Photography is a funny medium, right? It has its roots in the real, but it's also an idealization, a capture of something that is so momentary. So the photographer is always having a dialogue with time, not just light. Think about Karl Blossfeldt, his close-up botanical photography. There is something similar going on here. Artists are always having conversations with each other, like a big, ongoing game of telephone. And it’s up to us, the viewers, to listen in and make our own connections.