“Botanical Portraits” is an extension of my solar photogram work since the mid 1980s, titled “Human Nature.”  The direct solar photograms use human scale plant forms as subject matter, which express a powerful and vital energy.  The plants in this body of work were chosen for both their scale relationships and healing properties for the human condition.  We all know clearly that our current relationship to the Natural World is a fragile one.  The simple, direct truth of the subject matter is revealed, alternating between dark and light, suggesting both the benevolent and terrible beauty of the Natural World. -Martha Madigan

The human scale six foot tall plant is placed on a slow-speed printing-out-paper and exposed in the direct sunlight for five to thirty minutes, relative to the foliage density.  The resulting print is then gold toned and fixed for archival permanence.  This print is then contact printed to an unexposed sheet of printing-out-paper to make the positive print. High resolution direct scans are made of the unique prints. Finally, digital editions are created of both the original photogram and the positive print.  The resulting full scale digital prints are made using pigment dyes on archival paper.