Event Name: Speaker Series: Journey of Botanical Photography
Event Date(s): Thursday, 9/11/2025, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM, 2 hours
Ages Allowed: 16 - 99
Tickets Available: 92
Purchase Deadline: Thursday, 9/11/2025 7:00 PM
Botanical Photography from the 19th Century to Today     
Artist, writer, and curator Shelley Kirkwood presents a captivating talk tracing the evolution of botanical photography from its 19th-century origins to the early 21st century. Drawing from her own hybrid practice, Kirkwood sheds light on the techniques, stories, and images that have shaped our understanding of plants through the photographic lens.

Join us for a visually rich journey exploring how artists have used the camera to interpret the natural world—from delicate anthotypes and collodion plates to striking large-format color works and modern digital composites. Perfect for photography lovers, plant enthusiasts, and anyone curious about the enduring connection between art and nature. 

This talk will be accompanied by a special display of Shelley’s artwork, an opportunity to meet the artist, and a chance to purchase prints. 

Botanical Photograph by Shelley Kirkwood
  EVENT INFORMATION
  • Ticket Price: $10 NEBG Member Adult | $20 Non-Member Adult 
  • Date: Thursday, September 11, 2025
  • Time: 7-9PM
  • Location: New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill
  • Doors open at 5:30 PM. A book signing and print sale will follow the lecture.
   
    About the Artist – Shelley Lawrence Kirkwood 
 
       

Shelley Lawrence Kirkwood is an American photographer and writer whose work explores memory, place, and themes of transience depicted through the landscape. Deeply rooted in observation and attuned to the natural world, her practice blends fine art photography, literary sensibility, and curatorial insight.     

Kirkwood earned a BA in photography from Hampshire College and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Her formative years in New England and experience in curatorial departments helped shape her interdisciplinary approach. Since her first exhibition in 1994 at the Midtown Y Gallery in NYC, she has exhibited extensively across the US and internationally.  

She now lives and works in a restored 19th-century church in western Massachusetts. Her current work explores the fusion of 19th-century anthotype processes with contemporary photographic methods.  


      


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