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Photographer's Works On Display At Gallery

Klint Lowry/SUNCOAST NEWS

As an artist and gardener, photographer Carol Gula is captivated by the passion flower, as she explains which of its many aspects she wanted to emphasize on a particular image.

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: February 1, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - The modern art photographer has a multitude of creative options, before and after the shot is snapped. So how judiciously they use those options to get the most from the raw images they start with can be a measure of their artistry.

This is especially true when, to begin with, the subject is one of nature's delicate masterpieces.

Photographer Carol Gula has a vast skill set at her command. Her newest exhibition, "The Passion of the Flower," now showing at The Progress Energy Art Gallery, in downtown New Port Richey, demonstrates that command.

The photographic collection includes about 20 images, all of the passion flowers she grows at her home in the Aripeka area.

"It's a series in that I've taken over a period of some time," Gula said, "but as I took them I made a group that I thought would go together."

Both as a gardener and an artist, Gula has had an appreciation for the passion flower in all its intricate variations.

"I have all the Latin names on the back of each of them," she said with a laugh. She can't even remember which part is the stamen and which is the pistil, much less the names of each breed, even though she grew them herself.

"This one's a hybrid," she said, picking up one of the pictures as they were being hung Tuesday. "I'm not sure who the father is."

Gula's appreciation for passion flowers is plainly more aesthetic than academic, and through these shots, she presents all the aspects of the flower she has seen.

To do this, each shot has its own style. There are entire flowers and tight close-ups. Shots that look carefully choreographed and others that give a "take me as I am" impression.

And, in what might surprise some people, several of the shots are in black and white.

"Usually, when one views flora images," her artist statement reads, "the color of the flower takes over from the rest of the image and makes the other aspects less noticeable, such as design, structure and detail.

"I like to explore not only the beautiful colors of nature, but the wonderful designs and forms of this plant family by photographing many of the blossoms in black and white."

One shot that typifies this approach is of a batwing passion flower, so named for its unusually shaped leaves. The photo focuses on the leaves. Instead of green, the leaves are shown in dark, shiny grays that bring out every vein and curve and make it easy to see how it got its name.

Although it is important to take time setting up a shot, Gula said, much of the work in getting the shot to be what she wants it to be occurs after the fact.

"I do spend a lot of time in Photoshop, which makes it easy to explore how to go further," she said, referring to the widely used photo-editing software.

Gula always shoots in color, even if she's thinking she'll want a black-and-white image in the end. Manipulating colors can produce some dramatic effects once an image is changed to black and white, she explained.

When Gula intended for a shot to be in color, she exercised restraint with the Photoshop controls.

"I saturate them a little, but I stay true to each individual flower's colors," she said. "Like, I don't put red in for blue."

A visit to her Web site, www.cgula.com, or to www.alternativephotography.com/artists/carol_gula.... shows that throughout her career, Gula has shown a fondness for various techniques of image manipulation.

Gula gives herself a little latitude in some of the images. She showed how in one relatively stylized shot she touched up the natural lines in the flower's petals. Some of her favorite pieces in the collection are shots she based on the style of 19th century botanical renderings.

"This is printed with pigment ink on matte paper, and it makes all the difference," she said.

The result is an image that is hard to tell if it's a highly stylized photo or a very realistic painting.

In addition to Gula's collection, work by local artists and photographers Wes Trigger, Gregory Colvin, Lorna Conley, Angela Taylor, Cheryl Molennor, Michelle Collins, Karren Tolliver, Paula Showen, Sherry Stamback, and quilt artist Elizabeth Harrison are also on Display.

"Passion for the Flower" will be on display through March 29.

The Progress Energy Art Gallery is at 6231 Grand Blvd., New Port Richey. For more information call 727-848-6500, or visit the gallery's Web site.

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