If there are discernible trends in modern American Garden style, they tend toward clean lines, the spare and simple and natural plantings.
In his new book A Clearing in the Woods: Creating Contemporary Gardens
Foley has been photographing gardens for more than 30 years, and in this book he allows the viewer to step into the garden, inhabit the space, and experience nature itself. As Foley puts it in the introduction, he wants readers to "become more keenly aware of the splendor found in beautiful gardens where the natural world invites us in to a sanctuary where we belong. The yearning for this connection is what inspires people to commission gardens, to design gardens, and to photograph them. The act of capturing this alchemy, where light and air mix with plants, dirt, stone, and wood to create something more than the sum of its parts is the reason why we do what we do."
In this book, you'll experience two lush tropical gardens in Florida by landscape architect Raymond Jungles that make you feel like you're in the midst of natural ponds alive with migrating songbirds and groves of exotic trees and shrubs. You'll walk through a rooftop meadow in downtown Washington DC overflowing with blues and golds and yellows and greens, designed by Lisa Delplace of Oehme van Sweden & Associates, Inc. On Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, you can sit outside on a flat lawn terrace and view the ocean through drifting masses of native grasses and vegetation, the creation of Steve Stimson.
From the Texas garden by Bill Bauer that's reminiscent of Tuscany to a modern Virginia classic by Richard Arentz to the minimalist East Hampton garden by Edwina von Gal & Co, many of the latest trends in contemporary design are represented in this book.
It goes without saying that the book is filled with 200 of Foley's breath-taking color photographs ... making this a book you'll consult for design ideas and treasure for many years to come.
Books, plural...
Posted by: phil | October 01, 2009 at 07:49 AM