THE EXHIBITION


Introduction
Biography
Botany
Horticulture
NY State College of Agriculture
Cornell University
Nature Study
Education of Women
Commission on Country Life
Hortorium
Photography
   Camera
   Minnesota: Hoodoo Point
   Minnesota: Canoe
   Vienna
   Record of Negatives
   Ethel and Sal
   Pumpkins of 1889
   Pumpkins of 1889, Notes
   Self-portrait
   LHB Photographing
   Melons-Collection
   Peonies
   Jonathan Apples
   Winter Melons
   Rea Quince
   Passion Flower
   Sunflower
   Botan Plums
   Tulips
   Old Fashioned Garden
   Fig
   Chrysanthemum
   LHB with camera, 1948
Writings
Travel

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PHOTOGRAPHY

When Liberty Hyde Bailey learned to use a camera in 1886, he did so not as a dilettante, but as a committed photographer. Although he continued to develop his photographic skills throughout his life, his primary goal was not to create outstanding images, but to document horticulture. Nevertheless, Bailey’s photographs-thousands of which have been preserved-testify to his innate aesthetic sense. Many of the images are simply works of art. In recent years, his photographs have been displayed in museums of art, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

In general, Bailey’s approach to photography was measured and stately. He eschewed the snapshot for the carefully staged still life. His camera was not a handheld tourist’s device, but a large, heavy field camera, which required a tripod and long exposures. It accompanied him to greenhouses and farms just as it did on his trips to exotic destinations. In contrast, Bailey preferred to print his negatives as cyanotypes, in the quickest, simplest process available to him. He carefully numbered, collected and annotated the cyanotype prints in twenty-four albums, which he created between 1888 and 1910. Bailey’s images convey the pure beauty of the flora he cultivated, yet the timelessness and simplicity of his compositions resemble Italian Renaissance still life paintings more than they do horticultural studies.

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