Yesterday evening and earlier today, I spent a couple of hours poring over the work of Kathryn Kolb, a fine art nature photographer living in Atlanta. She has taken stunning medium-format camera photos of branches and leaves in her backyard, around the city, and across the country. In her work, there is often no central subject in focus — the entrancement of the image comes from the pattern of forms and the play of light. Many of them are like impressionistic paintings, venturing below the surface forms to encounter the life energy contained within. Before I saw her images, I tended to consider pictures with an unfocused subject as mistakes. Now I know otherwise; blurred images have their own power and allurement. Today’s offering of a greenbrier leaf from Piney Woods Church Road is in appreciation of Kathryn Kolb.
