This website features only cameraless work. Each photograph is a "contact print." In every case, a light or moving light beam is directed on the object, which is then recorded on black and white photo paper or on a digital file via a scan head.


These subjects, most of them from my garden, are so complete in themselves that the use of software processing is restricted to the digital equivalent of darkroom printing techniques. All other distortions or effects are achieved naturally in a single exposure. I honor all stages of the plant cycle from seed or bulb to beautiful crispy dried old age and I freely exercise my right to surgically operate on my subjects, in the service of a new fierce type of aesthetic. I feel passionate about smeared colors as subjects move, over time.

Working with plant specimens calls forth feelings of respect and wonder in me. And if I "lean on them" in just the right way, they begin lending themselves to varieties of emotional expression beyond the traditional beauty-aesthetics we might otherwise associate with them. This isn't your old grandmother's bouquet. Far more is possible, as these graceful forms yield their secrets.


Diane Kaye, ARPS