Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Larry Lederman
Posted in Ledermans-Lens on May 9 2017, by Matt Newman
Larry Lederman‘s lens takes you to the Garden when you can’t be there and previews what to see when you can.
For those who weren’t able to make it to The New York Botanical Garden during the height of its blooming crabapples and daffodils, Larry Lederman has the solution. During a late April trip to the Garden, he spent time exploring the grounds with his camera, capturing the rainbow of contrasting colors to be found on Daffodil Hill and its surroundings.
Whites, pinks, reds, and purples mingle with the soft creams and yellows of the daffodils, while a quick stop over in the Burn Family Lilac Collection reveals the fragrant clusters of flowers that define one of our most popular collections this time of year.
You can still find blooming crabapples and lilacs here in early May, while tulips throughout the grounds and the undeniable spectacle of the Azalea Garden now move into the spotlight. Stay tuned in the coming weeks as the spring show and its many acts continue to unfold.
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Posted in Photography on November 4 2016, by Matt Newman
Larry Lederman‘s lens takes you to the Garden when you can’t be there and previews what to see when you can.
Fall at the Garden is a time of tremendous change, but it begins in small fits and starts. You can see it in the way shafts of light slip through the trees, and in the first hints of leaf color peeking from the tips of their branches. In recent weeks, Larry Lederman has explored these scenes with his camera, visiting the Native Plant Garden and the Thain Family Forest—often the most vivid fall displays at the Garden.
Here you’ll see deciduous trees at the earliest stages of their seasonal switch, just beginning to show color and certainly wearing the early morning fall sun well.
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Posted in Photography on September 23 2016, by Matt Newman
Larry Lederman‘s lens takes you to the Garden when you can’t be there and previews what to see when you can.
This week, Lederman’s Lens takes us through the Home Gardening Center and straight on to the Ladies’ Border, stopping at the Herb Garden on the way, where contrasting elements of picturesque, playful flowers and structured foliage create a theme of order and flair. Soft-profiled dahlias and clematis complement the more rigid elements of cardoon and yucca, offering the best of both aesthetics.
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Posted in Ledermans-Lens, Photography on September 13 2016, by Matt Newman
Larry Lederman‘s lens takes you to the Garden when you can’t be there and previews what to see when
you can.
The approach of fall in the Garden brings with it the revitalization of one of our most classically scenic collections, the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, where hundreds of cultivars revisit the colors of spring with a second bloom in September.
Together, the two collections are the perfect escape in late summer, an opportunity to soak in the best of both flowers and foliage before the transitions of fall arrive. Here, Larry Lederman spotlights his favorite aspects of each from recent trips through the Garden.
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Posted in Photography on August 29 2016, by Matt Newman
Larry Lederman‘s lens takes you to the Garden when you can’t be there and previews what to see when you can.
Lederman’s eye often carries him to sweeping landscapes in the Garden, where vistas of great depth and variety offer worlds for him to capture—the Native Plant Garden, the Benenson Ornamental Conifers, other sprawling locations that form the identity of our 250 acres. But he’s fascinated by the minutiae of the Garden as well, limning the beauty of individual flowers, trees, and plantings in between the anchor collections of NYBG.
Here, he documents the wonders that live—quietly elegant or shouting with color—right near our Visitor Center. These are only a handful of the treasures seen upon your first few steps into the Garden, whether you’re passing the Shop or waiting for the next tram.
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Posted in Photography on August 15 2016, by Todd Forrest
Larry Lederman‘s lens takes you to the Garden when you can’t be there and previews what to see when you can. Todd Forrest, Arthur Ross Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections, provides a prologue to this new collaborative blog series with NYBG’s Horticulturists.
If you are fortunate enough to visit NYBG on a weekday morning after the sun has risen but before the shadows have lengthened, you may bump into Larry Lederman standing with his camera and tripod in some far corner of the landscape. For more than 15 years, Larry, a retired attorney and member of the Garden’s Board of Advisors, has traveled from his home in Westchester County to photograph the Garden in all seasons. Over that time, he has amassed a catalog of images that reveal the beauty and complexity of our plants, gardens, and exhibitions in a way that only someone both intimately familiar with the Garden and uniquely talented could.
Larry’s photographs brought the pages of two recent books about NYBG to life. He spent countless hours walking through the Garden’s 250 acres to produce hundreds of photographs for The New York Botanical Garden (Abrams, 2016) and Magnificent Trees of The New York Botanical Garden (Monacelli, 2012). Larry has also exhibited his photographs of the Garden in the Arthur and Janet Ross Gallery and generously provided images for many other publications and projects.
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Posted in Photography on January 28 2016, by Matt Newman
In the Ross Gallery of the Library Building, you’ll find the photography of Larry Lederman, whose efforts to document the Garden’s beauty in all seasons have led to quite the stunning collection. See it this year as we celebrate our 125th Anniversary!
Celebrating NYBG: 125 Years in the Ross Gallery – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on December 7 2012, by Matt Newman
That’s enough relaxing for one week! While last weekend’s schedule kept things simple and streamlined, we’re stepping up the pace this time around with a series of exclusive events running the gamut from seasonal to enlightening. And, of course, everything in the middle. Between the trundling trains buzzing about the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, and the gingerbread frosting taking over the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, you’ll find winding Forest tours, wildlife exploration, and an opportunity to meet one of the NYBG‘s favorite photographers. I suppose I should also mention our “holiday happy hours,” which seems as apt a description as any.
Saturday morning begins with Debbie Becker’s weekly Bird Walk, though this particular session is both informative and proactive. Not only will you be scoping out the avian residents and visitors flitting about the Garden, but pipping each one off on a personal list. At the end of the walk, your bird counts will be submitted to Cornell for their database as an unofficial warm-up for the Christmas Bird Count. This annual, nationwide event goes a long way to helping researchers and conservationists understand the state of the bird world in the U.S., so you won’t just be putting your Saturday to good use–you’ll be contributing to a worthy cause, as well.
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Posted in Photography on May 24 2011, by Ann Rafalko
Ed. note: Larry Lederman, photographer and friend of the Garden (he’s a member of our Advisory Board), has a beautiful exhibit of large-scale tree photographs up right now in the lobby of the amazing Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan. We wanted to learn more about Larry and his amazing photographs, so we asked him a few questions.
What is the title of the Exhibit at the Four Seasons?
Spring.
How did you choose the photographs for the Exhibit?
To show the presence of trees in our lives. As you walk in the door of the Four Seasons you will first see the pleached Sycamores. It is a striking image: the Sycamores are just beginning to bud, and their severely pruned geometric structure is almost like an x-ray. There is no escaping “the hand of man” expressing a formal sense of beauty on ordinarily unruly Sycamores.
Alongside the Sycamores are the Cherry Trees of Pilgrim Hill in Central Park, showering cherry blossoms like snow. There is no constraint here, no geometry. These trees are over a hundred years old, placed on a hill by Olmsted’s plan to be seen and enjoyed. They express their longevity and the wonder of renewal. And directly opposite the photograph of the Cherry Trees is the photograph of the view of the Native Forest in The New York Botanical Garden, expressing the exuberance of spring.
The fifty-acre Forest is kept native through careful attention–as authentic as Colonial Williamsburg and as diligently cared for–to transport us to an earlier time, our American Eden. The other two images also show us spring’s joy in cultivated trees planted for pleasure. Trees reflect our culture, our communion with nature, without having to retreat to wilderness.
How did you get into taking photographs?
I was interested in and enjoyed trees. It was that interest the got me into photography; the subject preceded the medium. But once I learned how to use the camera, I expanded my subjects. For example, I have spent the last five years doing landscapes evocative of the Hudson River School of painters, among other things. Last year I had a show at Olana, the home and studio of Frederic Edwin Church, one of the founders of the Hudson River School.
When did you start and how did you learn?
I started about nine years ago with film and then moved to digital photography. I largely taught myself, which is the way I like to learn. But teaching yourself requires a lot of reading and many museum visits. It also allows you make a lot of mistakes and to develop bad habits, which you have to watch out for and correct. I find that it is necessary to take a few courses from time to time.
How did you come to exhibit at the Four Seasons?
They had seen the calendars that I have been doing for the Garden over the past five years.
Your photographs are very large, some are 6×9 feet!
Images of trees and forests show very well when they are large. Photographs help you to see structure and form in a way that is difficult to see otherwise. When they are large there is an emotional impact that informs your sense of the divine. It is the way that I see the images when I take them. For me, photography is an emotional experience.
How often do you photograph?
Almost every day, even when it rains and snows. And I am at the Garden at least two or three times a week, following the changes in the light and the seasons.
I understand that you are working on a book with the Garden?
We are doing a book to be called Magnificent Trees of The New York Botanical Garden. We expect that it will be published in 2012, in time for Christmas.
I also understand that the proceeds from the sales of the photographs at the Four Seasons will go to the Garden.
That is correct. The Garden has been an inspiration for me.
When will the exhibit at the Four Seasons begin?
It is up now through at least June 20, possibly through the end of June. It is in the lobby, which is a landmarked room, and you can visit the exhibit without going upstairs to the restaurant.
Posted in Programs and Events on December 11 2010, by Plant Talk
Larry Lederman, photographer and friend of the Garden (he’s a member of our Advisory Board), has a beautiful exhibit of large-scale tree photographs up right now in the lobby of the amazing Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan. Stop by when you need a break from all your Christmas shopping!
Larry Lederman at The Four Seasons (photo (of the photo) by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
