OP: Plant Kingdoms: the Photographs of Charles Jones

Smithmark, New York, 1998. Hardcover. Very Good. First printing.

In 1981, at a London antique market, a trunk full of striking and serious vegetal photographs sold to collector Sean Sexton. But no negatives remained; the artist’s grandchildren claim he “used his glass-plate negatives as cloches in the garden to protect his young plants in the early part of the growing season.”

The photographer, Charles Jones, a trained gardener who worked on various estates, did not leave behind ordinary snapshots but isolated, high contrast, close-up images. Though shot in the early 1900s, the black and white photos have a three dimensionality that make them present and timeless. Pleasing to look at and a reminder of the ephemeral nature of all art.

The book block and case are Fine with a jacket bearing a heavy scratch and divot to the front. First printing.