PHOTOGRAPHY
“I wish to express my gratitude to Judith Thompson for offering the exquisite flower photographs taken by her late husband, Harold Feinstein. The beauty of these flowers carry the perfect visual fragrance of Merlin’s Alchemy of Consciousness. Thank you from my heart of hearts dearest Judith and Harold.”
-Diana
About The Artist
Harold Feinstein was born in Coney Island in 1931 to Jewish immigrant parents and began photographing at the age of 15. By the time he was 19, Edward Steichen, the director of photography for the Museum of Modern art in New York had purchased his work for the museum’s permanent collection, making him the youngest person to be so honored. He became the youngest member of the famous Photo League and at an early age was recognized as one of the leading figures in the evolving genre of mid- century street photography. When he died in 2015, the New York Times declared him “one of the most accomplished recorders of the American experience.” Several years after his passing the documentary Last Stop Coney Island: The Life and Photography of Harold Feinstein premiered at DOC NYC to sold out crowds. His work is represented and exhibited world-wide.
While his black and white street photography is much revered, his love affair with flowers became a consistent calling for him beginning in the early 80’s with his Sky Flower series taken from the roof of his small apartment in Greenwich Village and continued in other parts of the world. In 2000 he began photographing flowers using a technique he called scanography, which produced the highly detailed portraits of flowers seen on this website and resulted in seven books published by Little Brown, Inc. The beauty of these flowers and the innovation of the photographic process earned him a Computerworld Smithsonian award for “a process that is revolutionizing the possibilities of color photography.”
Harold was an innovator, experimenter and iconoclast, always living according to his own creative impulses, not the dictates of the art world. He taught for nearly 65 years and was a highly renowned and influential teacher who inspired generations of photographers. Former New York Times photocritic, A.D. Coleman called his private workshops “legendary” adding that they have “proved instrumental in shaping the vision of hundreds of aspiring photographers.”
His communion with the flowers was a form of spiritual practice for him. He would often arise in the middle of the night and write love poems to the flowers, a series that he later called “A Garden of Psalms.” In 2001, LIFE Magazine produced a small video of the flowers with Harold’s voice and entitled it A Garden of Psalms. In it he says: “I did not consider myself religious when I was younger, but in this journey with the flowers -- which I truly believe to be messengers from God -- I began to see God's work all over. Looking at a flower closely, no matter how wild or wondrous your imagination is, just what exists in the flowers we see is such a miracle. It's a gift, and honoring the gift with with your work is your responsibility or the way of showing your gratitude.”
To learn more about Harold Feinstein:
To join the mailing list of the Harold Feinstein Photography Trust please contact [email protected].
