pure loveliness

This morning's post office run yielded something that I've been rather impatient to receive.  The book pictured above contains my first published photograph!   The fact that it's a gardenia flower makes the basic accomplishment all the more satisfying and meaningful to me.



I met Matt Cohen through his wife via Flickr.  The way he described his book really intrigued me and I was thrilled when he decided to include my photograph of a very special petal-friend.  The book is LOADED with truly gorgeous images and I think it would make a lovely holiday gift for any flower lover/gardener.  The text contains musings from a variety of sources including Frank Lloyd Wright, Marc Chagall and Matt himself.  Click on the photograph to read the poetic fragment that compliments my picture.  Quoted poets range from Emily Dickinson to Allen Ginsberg.  There are also applicable insights from prose writers of antiquity through to the present present tense.  And yes...the list includes my special-favorite local boy, Thoreau.

Matt says this about the book:  Zen of Watering Your Garden took me several years to produce, and demanded considerable intensity and focus in the past six months...many kind and generous people...were a part of helping me complete this project, some in ways I anticipated and some I never thought of when I started...The collective generosity of so many from around the world has greatly enhanced my pleasure in the project and I hope now that the book can do the same for them and many others.

When Matt first let me know he wanted to include the gardenia photograph, I was struck hard by the fact that this allowed me to resurrect a dream I had buried in my late teens - a dream about communicating through photographic images.  The incident, and my delighted acceptance of it,  opened the doorway to other interest in my images and some creative collaboration that's as nourishing as it is invigorating.

Click here to explore the book further through its Amazon profile. Said profile is quite well done and worth seeing for yourself.  Also note that Matt is in the process of building a blog right here.   Now I'm off to properly savor this treasure...

Comments

[jude]

hey congrats! being published is a great apt on the back! you take so many lovely photos.....

[Nellie]

Kudos! Lovely photograph in a lovely book. Well done.

[Acey]

Thank you - the book's arrival made today especially happy and bright for me. Have been so excited and impatient to share this particular "first" here on the blog.

[Sacred Suzie]

Oh Acey, that is so EXCITING! Yay for you getting your photography published, what a huge accomplishment and you totally deserve it, that image is stunning.

[karoda]

the poem and your photo are wonderful compliments to each other. congratulations on a fantastic accomplishment!