Succulents in glorious B&W

I recently participated in a black & white photo challenge on Facebook: for seven days, post a B&W photo of your everyday life, no explanation, no people. What initially seemed like a chore quickly became more fun than I had expected—and the catalyst for this post.

Nobody sees the world in black & white—not even dogs—so B&W photos are, by their very nature, an abstraction. In the absence of color, shapes, textures, and the relationship between light and dark take on outsize significance.

The natural world has been a favorite subject of B&W photographers since the invention of the medium. There is no shortage of beautiful images of plants and flowers—just take a look at the floral work of Tom Baril and Ron van Dongen—but succulents have traditionally taken a backseat to less prickly favorites such as tulips and calla lilies.

There are exceptions. Imogen Cunningham photographed agaves and aloes in the 1920s, and Brett Weston, son of Edward, made images of cactus, agaves and other succulents from the 1930s on.

Aeoniums, Succulent Gardens, Castroville, CA

In my book, however, the undisputed master of B&W succulent photography was Don Worth. He taught photography at San Francisco State University for more than 30 years, and in his spare time he hybrized echeverias (the perennial favorite Echeveria 'Afterglow' is his best known creation). His photographs of cactus, agaves, sempervivums and echeverias are filled with an inner light that verges on the spiritual (he also photographed tropical plants like alocasias, miconias and coleus with equal success). His best images were published in 2005 in an exquisite book titled Close to Infinity. Unfortunately, the few copies still available are $200 and up. 

Coincidentally, I had the opportunity to visit Don Worth's exotic Mill Valley garden in 2012 as part of the Garden Conservancy's Open Days program. Don died in 2009, but the garden—and Don's legacy—lives on thanks to the dedication of the new owner.

Which brings me back to the theme of this post. After finding inspiration in the B&W photos I posted on Facebook this past week, I decided to pick 30 recent succulent images and interpret them in black and white. These aren't real-life representations of these plants but rather my emotional response to them. I hope these photos will strike a chord with you, too.

Aeoniums and echeverias, garden of Linda Roye, Sacramento, CA

Echeveria 'Imbricata' and Sedum 'Angelina', garden of Sue Fitz, Davis, CA

Sempervivums, Poot's House of Cactus, Ripon, CA

Ruffled echeveria, Succulent Gardens, Castroville, CA

Echeveria 'Lady Aquarius', my own garden

Echeveria 'Compton's Carousel', garden of Mariel Dennis, Rancho Cordova, CA

Dudleya brittonii, my own garden

Mike and Danielle Romero's undersea garden, Succulent Gardens, Castroville, CA

Aloe polyphylla, garden of Ann Nichols, Piedmont, CA

Aloe tomentosa, Ruth Bancroft Garden, Walnut Creek, CA

Aloe vaombe, Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Arcadia, CA

Aloe vaombe, my own garden

Aloe vanbalenii, Succulent Gardens, Castroville, CA

Agave ovatifolia, Ruth Bancroft Garden, Walnut Creek, CA

Agave ovatifolia, garden of John Kuzma, Portland, OR

Agave attenuata 'Ray of Light', Succulent Gardens, Castroville, CA

Agave geminiflora, Succulent Gardens, Castroville, CA

Agave 'Kissho Kan', Succulent Gardens, Castroville, CA

Agave cupreata, my own garden

Agave bovicornuta, my own garden

Agave cupreata, my own garden

Agave 'Mad Cow', my own garden

Agave applanata 'Cream Spike' and Ferocactus peninsulae, Succulent Gardens, Castroville, CA

Uebelmannia pectinifera, Poot's House of Cactus, Ripon, CA

Main entrance, Ruth Bancroft Garden, Walnut Creek, CA

Agave vilmoriniana and Cereus sp., Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center, Riverside, CA

Ferocactus, Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center, Riverside, CA

Euphorbia horrida 'Snow Flake', my own garden

Euphorbia horrida and Euphorbia horrida 'Snow Flake', Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Arcadia, CA

TECHNICAL NOTE: The borders I chose for these images are part of my artistic interpretation. They evoke old photographs, Polaroid film, or traditional photographic processes where a sensitizer solution is hand-brushed onto a piece of paper (hence the brush strokes on the sides). In my darkroom days, I experimented with many of these processes myself. Now I can get the same—or better—results in far less time using software like ON1 Effects (now free!).