At Maine Farmland Trust Gallery September 28 through November 14

(Belfast, ME) Lynn Karlin, fine art photographer formerly known for her elegant images of country gardens, is on a quest to honor the vegetable. Karlin’s devotion was sparked three years ago when she met her first muse. “After bringing a particularly stunning cauliflower back to my studio from the Belfast Farmers’ Market, I placed it on a pedestal in an east facing window,” she relays. Pondering the obvious yet often overlooked.

(Image: “White Cauliflower” by Lynn Karlin)

While the genre of still life goes as far back as the art of ancient Greek and Rome, Karlin gives this style a new twist. What is refreshing and captivating about Karlin’s photographs is their absolute simplicity, which allows the vegetables to speak for themselves. By isolating her subjects against neutral or black backgrounds, adding nothing but a pedestal to underline their inherent importance, she succeeds in creating personality-filled “portraits.” The Belfast photographer’s success has not gone unnoticed – Karlin’s spring show “Raw Art” at Gallery on the Green (Pawling, NY) scored a positive review in the New York Times.

Karlin shares: “My love affair with fruits and vegetables began after college when I worked on a kibbutz in Israel for a month, picking apples, pears and plums. In 1983, thirteen years later, I left a successful photography career in New York City to move to Maine. I lived on a farm which my late husband, Stanley Joseph, had just purchased from back-to-the-landers and authors Helen and Scott Nearing. There, for eight years, we grew flowers and vegetables for inns and local restaurants and discovered the pleasure of eating with the seasons.” In 1991, Karlin and Joseph co-produced a book on their life together (“Maine Farm: A Year of Country Life” [Random House]). Two “Gardens Maine Style” books followed in collaboration with writer Rebecca Sawyer-Fay.

(Image: “Eggplant Family” by Lynn Karlin)

For Karlin, exhibiting her “Pedestal Series” at Maine Farmland Trust Gallery is a perfect fit. “Maine farms are very close to my heart, having helped run a market garden at my own farm for eight years,” she explains. “The work Maine Farmland Trust does to protect farmland and give farmers access to land they otherwise might not be able to afford is a mission that I can believe in and want to support. By exhibiting my art at the MFT Gallery I feel I can do my part in highlighting the amazing vegetables that our Maine farmers grow. My photographs are at home here.”

“Taking a Stand: The Pedestal Series” with many recent photos by Lynn Karlin, is on exhibit at Maine Farmland Trust Gallery located at 97 Main Street in Belfast, from September 28th through November 14th. There will be a public reception on Friday, October 5th, from 5:30 to 8:00 pm during the Belfast Art Walk, with local vegetable-inspired appetizers by Trillium Catering. Visitors will have a chance to win two signed copies of Karlin’s book “Maine Farm”,which she will raffle off at the reception. Karlin would like to thank the following farms for their beautiful produce that inspired her through the years: Chase’s Daily, Peacemeal Farm, Half Moon Farm, Hubbard Brook Farm, New Beat Farm, Freedom Farm, Fisher Farm, and Swan’s Way. Many of the farmers will be present at the opening of the exhibit.

(Image: “Garlic Scapes” by Lynn Karlin)

The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. On Sunday, October 7th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm during Columbus Day weekend, there will be a special opportunity for the public to meet the artist at the gallery. More information can be found at www.mainefarmlandtrustgallery.org.

Lynn Karlin graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York in 1970. An award winning photographer, her clients, past to present, include: New York Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, House Beautiful, Country Living, Gardens Illustrated, Coastal Living, Mother Earth News, Country Living Gardener, Horticulture, Organic Gardening, Country Home, La Vie Claire, Country Gardens, Cottage Living, Garden Design, National Geographic Traveler, This Old House and Design New England.

Maine Farmland Trust is a statewide non-profit organization working to keep Maine’s farms farming. Maine Farmland Trust created its gallery to celebrate art in agriculture, and to inspire and inform the public about farming in Maine. For more information on the Trust, please visit www.mainefarmlandtrust.org.

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