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Photographs in this portfolio
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Book Synopsis and Proposal "Mad With Joy" is envisioned as a 10-inch by 12-inch coffee-table book of photographs of flowers--luscious flower "portraits" in the tradition of Robert Mapplethorp's flower photography. The concept comprises more than 50 large (8x10) photos of flowers along with nearly 200 smaller pictures and brief text blocks that convey the author's thoughts about the flowers or the situations in which he photographed them. To call these photos simply "pictures of flowers" is less than descriptive. They actually are "portraits of blossoms." Indeed, the process is akin to portrait photography, in which the visual objective is to draw out the true character and beauty of the subject. Over the past four years, Glenn Osborn has photographed nearly 3000 flowers. The best have been selected for this volume. If it is successful, others will follow. The author currently is seeking a publisher for the book and hopes the samples on this website will convey to publishing houses both the excellence of the photography and the elegance of the book's design. Glenn has designed the book himself but is open to suggestion as to size, length, page layout, typography and other physical and visual characteristics of the book. Interested parties may contact the author-photographer-designer via email at: glennosborn@buckeye-express.com Book Proposal Suggested title and subtitle Mad With Joy Overview "Mad With Joy" features the unique flower photography of writer-designer-photographer Glenn Osborn. The photographs are rich in detail and highly expressive. While the book will be of interest to horticulturists and gardeners, its emphasis is on the beauty of the flowers. It will feature 100 large (8 inch x 10 inch) photographs, along with nearly 200 smaller photos. Each spread will be devoted to one flower species, color family or type and will contain brief text blocks about the flowers depicted, the circumstances in which they were captured and the author's thoughts about art, beauty and nature. A distinctive aspect of the photography is that all of it was done in natural light-in sunlight, as opposed to the studio. For that reason, the flowers are all warm and glowing rather than sterile and harsh. At the same time, each photograph has been Zinnia painstakingly "re-imagined" by means of computer technology: the backgrounds are removed and rendered in rich black; the leaves and stems, when shown at all, are muted to become framing elements. The emphasis is on the blossoms themselves. Contents
Graphics Market
An extensive publicity campaign is anticipated among magazines reaching these audiences. The author will be fully available for book signings, publicity appearances and other promotional opportunities. Ancillary products The closest current competitor so far identified is "100 Flowers" by Harold Feinstein (Bulfinch Press, $50). Other related titles include:
"Mad With Joy" will differentiate itself from these competitors by the distinctive natural-light photography complimented by the rich backgrounds of the images. Timing Author biography Glenn Osborn is a freelance writer-designer-photographer who lives in Perrysburg, Ohio. He toiled in the cubicles of corporate America for 20 years then set out on his own to produce communications materials for a broad range of businesses and organizations while pursuing his love of personal creative endeavors, of which "Mad With Joy" is his first non-fiction publishing venture. He is a founder of the Scrawl: The Writers Asylum , a collaborative workshop for writers, and has been managing editor and designer of that website's ezine, The Story Garden. He was the original writer of the "PhotoFiction" column on the international photography website, PixiPort, and currently is a partner in a private online creative workshop, iynx.net. Glenn is the Art Director of LitPot Press, designing the covers of the literary quarterly, and is a frequent contributor of photo essays and fiction. His short stories have appeared in Melic Review, Writer Online, The Story Garden, Toledo City Paper and other journals. Glenn teaches a college course in Marketing on the Web and operates a website design and consulting firm, HandsOnWebsites.com. He has a growing business selling prints of his photographs of flowers and digital compositions incorporating flowers and other elements. Glenn's photographs have been exhibited in a variety of galleries as well as the Toledo Museum of Art. He won the award for Photographic Excellence in the 2003 Salon de Refusés in Toledo and his prints are in many private collections. His photographs may be purchased or licensed. Two of Glenn's other photographic projects may be seen on the World Wide Web: The Garden of Eden Re-Imagined
Email Glenn at glennosborn@buckeye-express.com Author's statement That conundrum was used playfully in the 1926 painting by Réné Magritte, Ceçi n'est pas une pipe, in which the Belgian surrealist wrote that legend ("This is not a pipe") in longhand directly beneath a realistic image of a pipe. My point is the same as Magritte's: the image of something is not the same thing as the object itself and we mustn't confuse them. Nor, I would add, should we value the image more than the object. That is a form of idolatry. No representation of a flower can be more beautiful than the flower itself. As a result of such thinking, I quit taking
such pictures of flowers for many years and made instead a concerted
effort simply to look-to see-the lilies of the field, the mineral strata
in a wall of rock, the gnarly twist of a branch. In its place I discovered only questions: Why do we universally find flowers beautiful? For that matter, what is beauty? Did Og the caveman clutch a daffodil in his hairy fist and smile? Or have we learned-or been led, over the centuries-to agree that a rose is beautiful and a worm is not? How did we come to believe such things? I don't know the answers to those questions, but they no longer trouble me. I have accepted my own ignorance. Thoughts of these matters came back to me
in a rush when I bought my first digital camera a few years ago. After a
several assignments shooting historic houses and head shots of hair
stylists, one day I focused the camera on a single white rose. And when
I transferred that digital file to my computer and looked at the image
on a large color monitor, I was struck as if for the first time by the
subtle colors and compound curves and seductive shadows. It was lovely
and I was in love again. Glenn A. Osborn
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Group 1
All photographs,
text and compositions Copyright
© 2003 Glenn A. Osborn
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