Purple
Coneflowers
Durham, North Carolina
40x50 inch plex-mounted C-print in sculptor Steve Cote custom frame
2004
I suspect I will always have a fondness for flowers at night because they
are what lured me back into taking pictures after a particularly rough
couple of years of family illnesses. Before flowers at night, I was principally
a photojournalist and documentarian whose primary subject matter was people.
Seeing daffodils by streetlight was my conversion moment. By day it was
a can-do, bright little flower, but the nighttime illumination revealed
the true condition of its petals—scarred, torn, and weary. When
I was photographing it, it felt like a portrait shoot. Solo and paired
flowers soon gave way to rich, boisterous mobs of flowers. This particular
bed was in my neighbors' backyard. They knew I would be coming to photograph
while they were out of town, but I didn't think to ask them how to turn
off their motion light. Fearing that a long exposure begun with the motion
light off would be ruined at the last moment by an errant moth flying
in front of the sensor, I chose instead to use the motion light as part
of the composition and kept it triggered for the 20 minutes needed by
walking back and forth across the lawn every four minutes or so.
©MJ
Sharp / www.mjsharp.com