A Photographer's Passion Reaches Full Bloom

A podiatrist in New Jersey by day, Jonathan Singer spends his free time photographing rare flowers. His pièce de résistance -- "Botanica Magnifica," of which there will be 10 copies -- is a five-volume, double-elephant folio with 250 exquisite, intensely colored images. The first copy, which the photographer donated to the Smithsonian, is on display in the National Museum of Natural History until October; he says he has sold the second for $2.5 million.

"I've loved flowers since I was 5 years old, probably. My history in photography started with graffiti, but I've always had a passion for flowers. I know very little about botany, but I know beauty and I know composition.

"My photographs are taking the botanical world and the scientific world by storm, and that's because my work is art backed by science.

"Since I have a Type A personality, I like immediate gratification, so I always had to have a Polaroid. It wasn't until the advent of the digital camera -- the one I use now is a Hasselblad -- that I could create a photograph that was absolutely taxonomically perfect, in color and form. I learned lighting and composition techniques from people like Rembrandt, Bruegel, Vermeer. I always wanted to try to replicate the work of the master painters through photography, and I've finally broken through. My work now looks like they're Rembrandt paintings, and they're unique in the world.

"I'm confident in what I do. I shoot very quickly, and I know when it feels right. It takes me less than three minutes to set up for a shot, and I usually take one shot.

"When Dr. John Kress, curator in the Smithsonian's department of botany, saw my work, he said it was magnificent. He opened the doors for me to shoot the Smithsonian plant collection, and the rest is now history. I've shot everything the Smithsonian has of importance.

"I've really worked hard to put this collection together, it's probably the most outstanding work in botanical history in the modern era.

"One of my favorites is this Chinese tree peony. It was a gift from the Chinese government 25 years ago to botanists at the New York Botanical Garden; it was shot on location. It was the first time this tree peony was ever photographed accurately. You see the tissue layers of pigment gradually build up, and it's just a beautiful thing to behold."

-- Interview conducted and condensed by Laura Yao