Artist Vision

Martin Metzger has been an avid photographer for 50 years. Trained as a Prosthodontist, he became an expert at intra-oral photography in which he gave lectures and courses over his career. During this time, he developed an expertise in macro photography. Combining this with his life-long interest in horticulture, he applied his photographic skills to photographing flora, particularly that grown in his gardens. He works with both arrangements of flowers and individual blooms. More recently, he has been working with a flatbed scanner. The scanner creates an image distinct from that of a camera. With a scanner, an extremely sharp plane of focus is created along with a declining gradient of sharpness and illumination. This is coupled with unique lighting resulting in a distinct image. The pure black background that results from this process creates a striking setting for the saturated colors and detailed textures of the flowers.

Artist Statement

Although I have done many types of photography over the years: sports, landscape, birds, insects, portraits, aerial and studio, I have found myself repeatedly drawn to the garden. As my interest in photographing flowers grew, so did my gardening skills. My gardens are now home to dahlias, day lilies, rhododendrons, azaleas, and many perennials and annuals. I am an officer in the Rhode Island Dahlia Society.