[1 1/2  cols each]

“Pineapple Squash,” 2002-2003, archival pigment print, 22 by 17 inches.

“Ashkhabad Melon,” 2001, archival pigment print, 22 by 17 inches.

FOR 9/28

PHOTOGRAPHS BY VICTOR SCHRAGER AT N.Y. BOTANICAL GARDEN w/1 cut

ak/gs set 8/27 #710259

BRONX, N.Y. — Thirty luminous color photographs of heirloom melons, pumpkins, squashes and gourds grace the Arthur and Janet Ross Gallery at The New York Botanical Garden where photographer Victor Schrager’s bold portraits are monumental, sensuous and sculptural and they will be on view through September 1, 2008.

Schrager’s work has been exhibited in numerous collections, galleries and museums around the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is a frequent contributor to Martha Stewart Living and House & Garden magazines and has photographed numerous books, including Bird Hand Book, with A.S. Byatt, and Anatomy of a Dish, by Diane Forley, which won the best photography award in 2003 from the James Beard Foundation.

While drawing on the long tradition of botanical imagery associated with medieval illuminated manuscripts, botanical illustration and natural subjects, Schrager’s photographs also recall the botanical work of earlier photographers Karl Blossfelt, Charles Jones, Edward Weston and Irving Penn.

The heirloom specimens portrayed in the exhibition’s photographs were grown by Amy Goldman, a self-described “vegetable rights activist,” who works to preserve the agricultural heritage and genetic diversity of the world’s fruits and vegetables.

The New York Botanical Garden is a museum of plants at Bronx River Parkway (Exit 7W) and Fordham Road. For information, www.nybg.org or 718-817-8700.