‘Silver Prints From The Garden’

BRIDGEPORT — The Discovery Museum’s early summer exhibition “Silver Prints from the Garden,” a photographic exhibit by Joan Fitzsimmons featuring photographic investigations of gardens at Holyand, USA in Waterbury, is be view through July 22.

Dramatic black-and-white photographs show the beauty of the religious shrine’s plastic floral arrangements after years of exposure to the elements. Wendy Kelley, curator at The Discovery Museum, noted that the photographs blur the lines between real and artificial, making “the artificial become very real.”

To engage the viewer, the artist employed a large format size of 84 by 76 inches and used extreme close-ups to showcase detail, shadow and form.

Ms Fitzsimmons underscored the importance of the use of black and white photography in the exhibit, noting “…black and white photographs further obfuscate any distinction between the artificial and organic, rendering one as real as the other.”

Inspiration for “Silver Prints” can be traced to 1999, when Ms Fitzsimmons spent a month as an artist-in-residence at Weir Farm, a National Park in Ridgefield that is dedicated to the arts. Established by J. Alden Weir, an American Impressionist who lived and painted on the farm, she found Weir’s painting to be lushly sensual and was greatly intrigued by his ability to create something out of nothing.

The Discovery Museum, at 4450 Park Avenue, also houses a planetarium, the Challenger Learning Center and offers interactive scientific and technological exhibits, educational programs, and special shows. To learn about other museum programs and exhibits, visit the museum’s Web site at www.discoverymuseum.org or call 203-372-3521.