Gardens of Paradise

Beth Dow’s project, In the Garden, was created in formal English and Italian gardens, where the shape and mystery of the places were a natural draw for a photographer interested in garden history and historical concepts of paradise.

Dow uses the actual garden landscape as a visual jumping-off point, creating light and form where it may not actually exist, shaping photographic perspective and burning, dodging and cropping in much the same way a gardener plants and prunes and waits, to shape a path through the natural world.

As she says – “I am after that ‘slant of curious light’ that is the genius of a place.”

Photography by Beth Dow