Exhibition: Botanical Portraits Unearthed

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www.circaonjellicoe.co.za

Boophane disticha, Cedar Avenue (2009)

Russell Scott’s Botanical Portraits Unearthed makes exhibition debut

The debut exhibition of artist-photographer Russell Scott’s series, Botanical Portraits Unearthed, takes place at CIRCA Gallery’s Darwin Room, opening 30 Jan 2014.

The complete series comprises 76 studio images of indigenous plants, photographed in his studio between 2008 and 2013. Scott has selected nine pieces for his first display. Until now the Johannesburg photographer has been reticent to reveal these dramatically-lit botanical works, despite the urging of many. ‘I reached a point where I wanted to share these works with people who have similar botanical interests and who enjoy the interdisciplinary crossover of art and science’, says Scott.

In his striking style each specimen is lit to dramatise its particular shape, colour, texture and translucency. He prefers to think of his evocative photographs as ‘ …portraits of characters, as they are not always selected for being the finest specimens, but because they are variations of the type. It is necessary to isolate the plant from its environment to try and expose a unique personality’. Sometimes they remind him of plants that have been disrobed from their covers, as if nude portraits in a nocturnal setting.

Although Botanical Portraits Unearthed dates back to 2008, he began exploring flash photography of botanical material intensively from 2009, after accompanying a flora and fauna expedition as a contracted photographer. This project was undertaken by a group of scientists and botanists from the Natural History Museum in Paris and Kew Gardens in London, in the Cabo del Gardo province in northern Mozambique, joined by the project patron, Prince Albert of Monaco. The team included a group of scientists who were unearthing plant specimens and pressing flowers as plants bloomed at the beginning of the November rains, a prolific time for the range of insects and flowers in that area.

Selecting plant material for photographic study is based on opportunities to spotlight plants that might otherwise be passed unnoticed, in ditches or building sites. ‘The glamour of exotic blooms is no more significant than roots, tubers and stems in suggesting the character of the subject’.

Scott is assisted by his artist wife, Philippa Hobbs, to collect and identify the specimins. He follows the daily change in every acquisition hosted in their Johannesburg garden, and when the time is right the lighting is decided and studio prepared. Then a plant is carefully unearthed to avoid root damage. In the studio it is suspended or supported, or sometimes even hung upside down, with threads strategically holding parts of the plant in position. After photography is over the plant is returned to the soil, to the same orientation and depth, there to await future retrieval in Scott’s photosphere.

Although the unusual specimens that capture Scott’s attention are from all over the country, most are gathered from the Highveld, such as the subject of the photograph Boophane disticha. Some specimens, such as the gracefully-plumed Scilla natalensis and rosette-like Aloe aristata, are found in full, though wretched, bloom in a sack at Faraday Muti Market in downtown Johannesburg. Eulophia ovalis was rescued from the veld just before earth-moving equipment scoured the topsoil away. At other times unidentifiable blubs are discovered and planted speculatively and the surprise of the bloom is awaited, such as the Pterodiscus speciosus found near Makapanstad.

Scott's sculptural sensibility is informed by the artworks he made as a young post-graduate from the Fine Art Department at Technikon Witwatersrand in the late 1980s; while his technical skill was developed over many years of working in the photographic and model-making industry. Despite Scott’s intensive, controlled shooting style, he allows minimal post-shoot intervention to an image, other than to enhance detail and to remove traces of the support rig.