Featured Artist Madeleine Farley

Artist Madeleine Farley shares a striking, bigger-than-life collection of vivid floral photographs. Visit her website to see more of her work.

 

 

I have always been fascinated by photography and was fortunate enough to study in Los Angeles with Ansel Adams’s protégé, Ellie Kaufman.

 

 

However, my journey with long-exposure photography did not begin until 2008. At the time I was living in West Africa. I spent over a year in the remote jungles of Gabon, filming a TV series on the plight of the Western Lowland gorilla for the Discovery Channel.

 

 

Our camp was in an isolated area not far from the equator, where electricity was limited. As nightfall came early, I turned the darkness into an invisible canvas and began painting with light using a flashlight.

 

 

I was instantly hooked. It was such an exciting and unpredictable experience. I was never sure if I would come face to face with a leopard or a forest elephant!

 

 

I’ve been practicing ever since, focusing mainly on creating light-painting portraits of people in their homes. I found it somewhat safer working indoors with no wild animals—just the occasional cat or dog. This practice soon evolved into still-life photography.

 

 

The series of photographs Untitled Flowers was created in Los Angeles during the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdown. I transformed my studio into an empty, dark, blank canvas. Nothing in this process is predetermined, so the results continue to inspire and surprise me.

 

 

Alone in the dark, manipulating light and time, my goal was to evoke a sense of freedom, spontaneity, and ambiguity. Through these images, I hope to connect with viewers on an emotional level. I invite them to pause and reflect on the transient beauty of nature that so often goes unnoticed in everyday life.

 

 

My inspiration for the series came from 17th-century Dutch floral paintings. Flowers perish, we perish. This is the message of the early painters and of these images, conceived in the darkness of quarantine as the world was undone.

 

Madeleine Farley invites you to follow on Instagram.

 

 

Want to stay current on cutting edge business articles from Artsy Shark, plus artist features, and an invitation to the next Call for Artists? Click below to sign up for our twice-monthly email. You’ll get all this plus opportunities and special offers that you can’t get anywhere else!