Evening Glories: Robert Turney's Moonflower Photographs

Abstract

Robert J. Turney's moonflower studies are the photographic harvest of three years worth of summer evenings in East Lansing, Michigan. In the spring, Turney sowed his seeds in three large flowerpots (he is a casually accomplished gardener) and let the twining vines grow. Come July and August, the plants would blossom as the sun went down and the photographer would move his pots ofmoonflowers into his driveway, set up his lighting (two no-nonsense 500-watt quartz construction lamps), and get his Schneider 355mm f/9 G-Claron lens into position. In darkness, Turney shot them: singly, in pairs and groups, in bud stage or various phases of blossoming, and in full, trumpeting bloom. From 1999-2001, in this seasonal way, Turney pursued the flowers, under clouds, under stars, under the glowing coal of his cigarette. He used all the elements of light and dark, testing each photographic idea as it occurred to him, printing them, scrutinizing the results under the ground glass until his lens had nothing new to show him and he knew that he was done.