Vegetable Art by Lynn Karlin

Reader Contribution by Staff
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Calling all gardeners — If you want to view a remarkable series of photographs of vegetables as art, check out Lynn Karlin’s exhibit, “Taking a Stand: the Pedestal Series”. You can view the vegetable art online or at the Maine Farmland Trust in Belfast, Maine where it is currently exhibited. In her artist’s statement for the exhibition, Karlin writes:

“My new body of work is purely personal — it is about the obvious but often overlooked beauty of the harvest and my commitment to local and sustainable agriculture. After bringing a particularly stunning cauliflower back to my studio from the Belfast Farmers’ Market, three years ago, and placing it on a pedestal in an east facing window, I began my quest to honor The Vegetable. Working to capture the unique character of these often overlooked plants, I have isolated my subjects against neutral or black backgrounds, creating personality-filled portraits. My collection now consists of more than a dozen pedestals and I have expanded my search to fruit, flowers and edible plants. This fine art series,’The Pedestal Series,’ now includes more than 25 images, each one unique and each with its own design challenge.

“My love affair with fruits and vegetables began after college when I worked on a kibbutz in Israel picking apples, pears and plums in the fields 6 hours a day for a month. In 1983, thirteen years later after leaving a successful photography career in New York City to move to Maine, I lived on a farm my late husband, Stanley Joseph, had just purchased from back-to-landers and authors Helen and Scott Nearing. There, for eight years, we grew flowers and vegetables for inns and local restaurants and discovered the pleasure of eating with the seasons. In 1991, we co-produced a book on our life together. (Maine Farm: A Year of Country Life [Random House]). Two Gardens Maine Style books followed in collaboration with writer Rebecca Sawyer-Fay.”

Lynn Karlin graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York in 1970. An award winning photographer, her clients, past to present, include: New York Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, House Beautiful, Country Living, Gardens Illustrated, Coastal Living, MOTHER EARTH NEWS, Country Living Gardener, Horticulture, Organic Gardening, Country Home, La Vie Claire, Country Gardens, Cottage Living, Garden Design, National Geographic Traveler, This Old House and Design New England.

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