Canadian-born, german-based photographer Anne Hoerter is truly dedicated to her art. With compositions that combine many images, taking months to complete, she has been honing her technique for ten years. She takes her inspiration from Dutch still life paintings, botanical illustration from the 1800s, and nature’s many natural forms. Below she shares with us her connection to plants, her creative process and some of her art works.
I developed my love for plants as a child during my summers at our family cottage in Canada. My grandfather was a agronomist and both my parents photographed Botanics. There was always an immense variety of plants growing in the gardens. I was intrigued with the form, colour, transparency and movement of the plants. As the plants became old and were dying, I noticed how they took on an incredible ray of changing colours.
As with all my photography, I see the negative space of objects first and foremost. I think this is the reason why I like to first take the plant apart, explore each part and then put it back together.
I am still fascinated by the immense diversity of forms found in plants. Plants are a symbol of freedom for me. They allow me to go to places where I can breath easier, relax and they keep me mentally fit. They stimulate me, heal me.
I like to see my work as a modern form of plant documentation with a twist, especially my Black Series. I do not want to produce the perfect photograph but rather one that still breaths.
I want to give the observer the feeling that they are entering my photograph, the plant, the forest and to forget all that is around them. I want to give them the drive to reach out and grab the plant that is shown in the photograph.
I take the plant apart and photograph the different parts under a variety of lighting and focal points. I then re-arrange them back through Photoshop. I have been working on this process for 10 years. I feel it allows for a surreal form of depth of field. I photograph with a Nikon D70s.
My Forest and Elements series can consists of up to 300 single images. I photograph each single tree etc, some in focus and some out of focus. I then combine the single images through Photoshop to produce a very unique representation of nature. I also like to freeze plants and leaves, then press them under glass.
I like to keep an open mind to discovering new plants that work with my technique. Some plants which I didn’t think would work actually ended up to be some of the best to work with.
