Cypripedium parviflorum- Small Yellow Lady's Slipper 1931

Edwin Hale Lincoln made this image of a Small Yellow Lady's Slipper sometime in his lifetime using photography. It's got such a delicate silvery grey tone! It reminds me of daguerrotypes and other early photo processes. I wonder what it was like to be him, setting up the shot, waiting for the right light. The subtleties in tone must have been really important to him. I can feel him crouching down, carefully arranging the plant. What do you think he was thinking? There’s something really beautiful about how the leaves and the stems just barely emerge from the ground like that. It’s a beautiful record of the plant, but it's also an evocation of a feeling. Maybe this is what painting and photography have in common: to evoke a sense of time. Artists are always in conversation with each other, you know? Across time, and geography. They leave clues for us to follow. It's up to us to find them.