My images are fundamentally about form and revealing the visual eloquence of my subjects. Photo-collage from multiple scans of original objects describes the process I began to use in 1998 to create two bodies of work: Florilegium and Collaborations. Cameraless images are as old as the photographic medium itself. Mine contribute to a tradition of botanical subject matter begun with Henry Fox Talbot’s Photogenic drawings of plant materials (ca.1830's) and Anna Atkin's cameraless botanical studies of British Algae (ca.1843).

My garden is the classroom in which I’ve developed my appreciation for and connection with the botanical world. My desire is to share what I have learned. Scanning my subjects renders them in fine detail that draws the viewer in to see the plants in a way that they haven’t before. Combining many scans with photo-collage allows me to create images that at first seem realistic but, upon closer inspection, are not really—plants and other objects combine in unexpected ways. I wish to draw the viewer into the image as a surrogate for the garden and to be stimulated by it on many levels as one would be in a garden/nature.

Perhaps, for us to conscientiously live in the natural world, we need more references to it in our lives—so that we may come to value it more. In our modern culture, inundated with self-reference, I seek to put forth more images of the natural world.

All Images Copyright
© 2008, Kim Kauffman.
All rights reserved worldwide.

See more of Kim's creations
Go to Kim's site >