Paulette Tavormina: Seizing Beauty

(Hardback)

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Description

Paulette Tavormina's first monograph reveals her seductive and opulent still lifes--heirs to the legacy of the Old Masters, as seen through the lens of contemporary photography. Paulette Tavormina's photographs of cornucopia, botanical arrays, and tableaux of flora and food are traditional in approach but boldly modern in their precision. Her sumptuous still lifes--replete with delphiniums, roses, lemons, figs, beetles, and porcelain bowls--recall the sumptuous detail of Old Masters such as Francisco de Zurbaran, Adriaen Coorte, and Giovanna Garzoni, with whom Tavormina shares a painterly perspective, dramatic use of light, and a masterful skill at creating dramatic compositions from the everyday. Maintaining their strong emotional resonance and ability to transcend space and time, Tavormina creates worldly still lifes that serve as intensely personal interpretations of timeless, universal stories. In only a few years Tavormina has staked out a unique position in the fine-art photography world. Featuring 65 works, this book marks the important first phase of Tavormina's ascent and will satisfy her growing audience and numerous galleries and exhibition venues.

Reviews

"The photographer Paulette Tavormina began her professional career working with antiques, food styling and photographing works of art for an auction house. Shes also spent many years collecting bits and pieces - the insects, objects and flowers that fill her studio - from markets and little shops. Her new book took six years to photograph and brings together all these experiences: It features 65 sumptuous color images inspired by old master still lifes. At first glance, you might easily mistake one of Tavorminas images for a Zurbarn or a work from the Dutch Golden Age of painting - many of the books photographs are built up with flowers, fruit, insects, objects, jewelry, butterflies and broken bits of porcelain. Others are inspired by the symbolic Vanitas paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries, with skulls and the reminder of death and the passing of all worldly goods." - The New York Times' T Magazine

"In her new book, Seizing Beauty, the New York-based photographer has compiled a collection of carefully crafted vignettes of astounding beauty, combining fruit, flowers, and unexpected fauna (a monarch here, a grasshopper there) in moody compositions that seem to glow from within." - Architectural Digest

Author Bio

Paulette Tavormina's photographs are held in museum, corporate, and private collections and have been exhibited in museums and galleries globally. She is a former prop and food specialist whose work can be seen in seven feature films, including Nixon, The Astronauts Wife, and The Perfect Storm. She photographs works of art for Sothebys New York, food for cookbooks, and commissions for National Geographic and The New York Times, among others. Tavormina lives in New York City, where she can often be found at one of its many farmers markets or antiques stores, searching for the perfectly imperfect objects that distinguish her work.