Flowers
Flowers
The Stephen Cohen Gallery is pleased to announce a new show of hyper-real color photographs of garden flowers by photographer Tony Mendoza. “Flowers” will run from August 2 to September 1, 2007. An opening reception for the artist will be held on August 4, from 7 to 9pm.
Mendoza’s vibrant digital color photographs of flowers depict these highly familiar subjects in unorthodox and surprisingly new ways. Taken with a high quality digital SLR camera, the photographs embody a hyper–real quality that gives way to the subtle surprises often overlooked in the natural landscape. Taken in two small gardens, and chosen from over six thousand photographs, the series culminated with the recently published book “Flowers”, from Nazraeli Press.
Widely known for his first published book, “Ernie: A photographers Memoir”-1985, which humorously documented his cat Ernie, and his second book of friend’s dogs titled “Dogs-A Postcard Book”-1995, Mendoza’s new body of work utilizes the low vantage point necessary to photograph his pets, yet dramatically changes his subject matter to depict an explosion of sublime color found in two small garden plots. Of the series Mendoza says, “ I liked how the low angle of view seemed to render flower pictures closer to the tradition of landscape photography than flower photography”. Indeed the cosmos, poppies, and morning glories captured by Mendoza’s lens occupy a monumental position---towering above the camera, the flowers take on the stature of redwood trees, thereby magically altering our perception of scale and perspective.
Tony Mendoza holds degrees in engineering and architecture from Yale and Harvard University. After years of working as an architect Mendoza studied with Minor White and pursued a career in photography. He has received fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and the Institute of International Education. Mendoza’s work has been exhibited at the California Museum of Photography, The Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale-Florida, and The Museo del Barrio in New York City amongst others.
Stephen Cohen Gallery
7358 Beverly Boulevard - Los Angeles