I’m not sure where I learned of The Gardens at Giverny. Did Mack or someone reprint it? Did @swerdnaekalb give a little thumbnail review on his Insta?* Who knows. I bought it maybe 18 months ago and my memory is dim. I’m a Shore fan, though, and any inexpensive older project of his is (for me) worth adding to the library.
If you’re unaware, Édouard Monet built the Gardens around his home and studio(s) in the late 1800s and early 1900s and made most of his late period work there. He built the little pond and planted the foliage from which he made his justly celebrated Water Lillies paintings, in a massive studio with huge skylights that helped him see and work, despite the cataracts that led to some of his most advanced color and abstraction.
After Monet’s death, the property passed to various relatives and wound up in the hands of his son, who didn’t much care about (or for) the place, and the home, studio, and gardens fell into disrepair. Upon the son’s death, the property passed to the French Academy of Fine Arts, and with some help and donations from around the world, various French institutions worked to bring the gardens back to life.
Shore’s work originated in a Metropolitan Museum of Art commission to photograph the gardens during their renovation. Shore visited several times, and made the photographs just after the renewal began, in 1977, and after the gardens returned to their former glory, 1981 and 1982. I find it surprising how similar the gardens and environs appear across that time span. The early group of pictures show gardens that maybe need a bit of tlc, but are otherwise fantastic; the later pictures show an absolutely thriving garden. It’s a testament to Monet’s vision (and his gardeners’ and advisors’ hard work).
As to the photographs themselves, if you expect photographs that mimic Monet’s paintings, like many photographers—including me—might attempt, know that Shore is not some unranked happy snapper. Stephen Shore is Stephen Shore, and he was just off of the Uncommon Spaces work, 5-10 years removed from American Surfaces era, well versed in paid editorial work and in demand, and he explored the Gardens with his own vision and toolkit.
He returned to a couple of scenes several times and the photographs, made 4 or 5 years apart, show the transformation in detail. A wide, easily strollable, trellised path with deep, high borders of various flowering plants that was wide enough for a car to drive down in 1977 was mostly overgrown with several new or returned types by 1981/82. The bridge that appears on the cover—a photo made in 1981 or ’82—looks fine, if a bit wild in a 1977 photo made from pretty much the same place. But the pond… the pond that Monet built, or paid some people to build for him, looked filthy and might have smelled a bit when Shore first visited, but in 1982 it was as clear and clean as a manmade pond can be, and Shore made the closest thing to a Monet Water Lilly that he would ever do. It’s one of my favorites in the book.
| Concept | |
| Content | |
| Design |
Overall, I rate The Gardens at Giverny a solid 4 stars.
My darling wife probably likes the book more than I do… But she’s the gardener, and you should see what she has done with our yard over the years. (And I give her the credit, despite buying the trees and plants, digging many of the holes, shoveling hundreds of pounds of mulch and compost and etc.: it’s her garden.) You can find copies of this for half of nothing, if I recall correctly… Yep. Softcover versions are cheaper than the hardcover I bought, and the 2005 Aperture reprint is less than a cup of coffee, shipped… smh. Makes me glad I don’t dream of making a photobook any more. Anyway. Good stuff, and I’m blessed to have a copy in the library.
*I miss his blog and wish he would go back to it. Maybe one day.