Garden Portraits

Book excerpt: A photographic portrait of 16 private gardens in New York and Connecticut through the seasons, weathers, and times of day. For his third book of landscape photographs with Monacelli, following Magnificent Trees of the New York Botanical Garden and The Rockefeller Family Gardens, Larry Lederman has selected 16 private gardens in New York State and Connecticut and studied them in depth, presenting views through the seasons and weathers to capture their essential spirit. As Gregory Long, President Emeritus of the New York Botanical Garden, observes: "After selecting the gardens, Lederman sets out to learn and understand them. He visits in all seasons, in all weather, at many times of day, in many light conditions. He wants to analyze their design and study their character. He wants to know their plants and see their environmental conditions and visual elements from many points of view. He wanders. He walks the paths, forward and backward, and stops frequently so that his camera can memorize views and details. As a result of this time spent and such intense scrutiny, he sometimes discovers aspects of a place that the residents themselves have never seen or fully appreciated. I think the owners of the gardens in this book will see vistas, patterns, designs on the land they did not know they possess. They will love their even gardens more, and their commitments will grow."