



images that haunt us







Photo on a small glass panel. Color. Photo of orange California poppies with additional purple flowers throughout the upper left corner of the background. Additional Description: Assumed to be an original lantern slide / autochrome by Harold A. Taylor, California photographer and resident of Coronado for many years.
Harold A. Taylor was born in the United Kingdom in 1878. In 1896, he immigrated to California, where he photographed Yosemite and other natural scenes in the state. He is credited by some as developing a method of colorizing photographs. In 1912, Taylor moved to Coronado, CA where he established the Coronado Floral Association and continued his photography business. He died in 1960 in El Cajon, CA.
quoted from California Revealed / Harold Taylor Collection

This series celebrates flowers – capturing their different phases and the variety of shapes and colours – each telling their own story. In beautiful detail it depicts how the light emphasises the elegance of the stem, or how it catches the leaf, or how it allows us to catch a glimpse of the brittle petals and the burst of colours when in full bloom. The viewer is invited to look closer and sometimes even take a step back, because in that instant – hidden aspects emerge – like a choreography, a fabulous dance.
‘A Declaration of Love, flowers in Dutch light’ is a series that symbolises life.
Flowers naturally bloom in all their strength, vulnerability and beauty – with elegance and grace – poetically captured in that single moment in time, never to be repeated again.
It is a serenade to life and love! [quoted from Stella Gommans website]






All images: Archival Pigment Prints on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Paper

“Flowers in Dutch Light”
Taking inspiration from the mastery of Dutch Golden Age painters and by blending this with 20th century photographers and their use of light, Stella Gommans’ resulting work is poetic, aesthetic, elegant and minimalistic. For Gommans – a former dancer and a largely self-taught photographer, nature in its broadest sense is an unfailing source of inspiration.
This exquisite body of work celebrates flowers – capturing their different phases and the variety of shapes and colours – each telling their own story. In beautiful detail she depicts how the light emphasises the elegance of the stem, or how it catches the leaf, or how it allows us to catch a glimpse of the brittle petals and the burst of colours when in full bloom. Gommans invites the viewer to look closer and sometimes even take a step back, because in that instant – hidden aspects emerge – like a choreography, a fabulous dance.
‘A Declaration of Love, flowers in Dutch light’ is a series that symbolises life.
Flowers naturally bloom in all their strength, vulnerability and beauty – with elegance and grace – poetically captured in that single moment in time, never to be repeated again. Quoted from Elliott Gallery








All images: Archival Pigment Prints on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Paper




















(*) please note: the images had been edited from the original scans available at the link above in the Library of Congress to enhance its color and definition.
