Flowers

Flowers. The word defines this book yet is too small to describe it. In the hands of a brilliant photographer, these are flowers as we have never seen them before -- flowers so spectacularly beautiful that, once seen, they cannot be forgotten. Among the blossoms that appear in this book, in a remarkable variety of guises, are the great ones -- irises, calla lilies, orchids, poppies, roses, and tulips. But here also are images of flowers that in lesser hands might be called unassuming -- morning glories, daisies, and alliums. Bela Kalman's stunning flower portraits, including his wonderfully fanciful computerized images, are the culmination of a renowned photographer's lifelong practice of his art and his continuing love of blooming plants. The photographs included in this book range from his earliest pictures of flowers, in 1939, to those taken in the past few years.