Joel Leivick breaks away from the ideal garden in his photographic exhibit In the Garden. For the past two decades, Leivick, a professor of photography at Stanford University, has been working on a project that targets nature in its most raw form.

He accomplished this task by creating In the Garden, an Emory Visual Arts Gallery exhibit that opened Thursday.

The 20-photograph series featured in the exhibit captures a plethora of places to depict the idea of an undisturbed beauty in gardens. Leivick recently made the decision to focus his work on nature, mainly scenic images of forests, which are featured at the exhibition.

Leivick’s black-and-white photographs allow the viewer to focus on the image as a whole, stripping it of all its colorful distractions. This lack of color creates a fair slate for all the different attributes in the photograph.

Contrast is present throughout many of the photographs in the exhibit. One photograph, “Cypress Trees,” presents a scene of order framed by disorder. The view consists of two manicured trees which allows for the viewer to experience the unexpected image of the wild surrounding the tamed.

However, another photograph titled “The Doorway” distracts the domesticated setting of a neighborhood view with a large tree that becomes the focus of the scene. This photograph contradicts the theme of “Cypress Trees” because the tame now creates a border for the untamed.

Another one of Leivick’s photographs portrays contrast by complementing the mobile with the immobile.

In “The Whirlpool,” he captures a scene in the forest where the trees are surrounded by water. He places an emphasis on the stillness of the trees, careful to void the picture of any movement besides the water. The water illustrates an unexpected element in the photograph because it embeds movement in the scene while the trees create an aura of stillness.

Many people gathered around “Greenhouse Near Volterra,” expressed positive comments about the photograph. This photograph illustrates a scene where a bouquet of withered flowers hangs in the center of a canvassed greenhouse. The bouquet in the middle resembles a chandelier in the middle of the dome of canvas. It presents the idea of the wild flowers serving as the centerpiece of the greenhouse.

Many of Leivick’s photographs are woven with geometric portrayals of gardens. These photographs portray the chaotic nature of the undisturbed gardens but Leivick also contrasts this theme by adding order to the setting. He concentrates on the already-present symmetry of each scene and accents the existing patterns.

One that particularly revolves around the geometric quality of gardens is “Spider Web.” This picture catches a view of a garden that consists of vines climbing up power lines and a spider web dangling in the corner. Leivick creates repetition in the rectangular posts that are not only holding up the power line, but also the wild trees climbing on them. The spiral patterns woven in the web allow for the geometric aspect of nature to be highlighted.

Through his photographic project In the Garden, Leivick defines the garden as an area of contrast.

This exhibit focuses on nature in the garden at its most raw form without the conventional blooming flowers and tamed bushes. Leivick explores many different aspects of a plethora of gardens to present the idea that nature can be cultivated without being conquered.

— Contact Hong Vu