Third Place, 2D

Tom Hennessy

Onion Bursting Forth

Photograph

12 x 18", Framed to 18 x 24 x 1.5"

$200

LIVE and Online

I have a patch of ornamental onions which flower in the spring. I wanted to capture the blossoming as the florets open in slow motion, unfurling from their buds.

Artist's Statement:

“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else.” - Georgia O’Keefe“

Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.” - Amy Lowell

These quotations are not from photographers, but from a painter and a poet. My approach to photography is very much influenced by writers, poets and painters, and I especially love the work of Georgia O’Keefe and Edward Weston. I want the beauty of the natural world to be captured in my photos and I want to show the details that we easily overlook in daily life. It is common to see flowers in a garden, and there is much to admire in a well laid out garden. But, to me, the essence is in often in the details of the individual flowers - the slowly opening petals of a rose; the colors and flair of a calla lily blossom; the dewdrops on the petals of a dahlia. These are the images that excite me to make my photographs.