Research Catalog

Title

Birdsong : the gardens of Russell & Lauren Fuchs / photographs by Philip Trager.

Author

Trager, Philip, 1935-

Publication

Fairfield, Connecticut : Laru Associates, LLC, 2017.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Fuchs, Russell,

Description

119 color plates, IX pages : chiefly color illustrations; 29 x 41 cm

Summary

Photographer Philip Trager trains his eye on a never-before-documented private garden as it metamorphoses over four seasons in a lavish new large-format book. While Trager's primary subject is the nature of photographic seeing--its contingencies and delights--in Birdsong he captures a personal garden of unusual variety and complexity. Beginning February 2016 and continuing to February 2017, Trager photographed Birdsong, the 18-acre garden belonging to the Fuchs family of Fairfield, Connecticut. Its creator, Russell Fuchs, is a passionate and self-trained gardening enthusiast. When the native New Yorker purchased the Fairfield property in 2001, he saved it from being carved into a half-dozen lots; and during his family's first fourteen years there he built a garden a year--sometimes in collaboration with a landscape designer, and sometimes not. Nowadays at Birdsong there is more to see than a visitor can take in on any one day, beginning with the flourish of the great lawn and grand allée and continuing through a bevy of gardens that includes such types as English, French, knot, bamboo, rock, rose, zinnia, conifer, wildflower, checkerboard, herb, and hosta. There is also an orchard, woodland, working farm, and a greenhouse where as many as 140 different vegetables are growing at any one time. "I've often photographed city life, architecture and dance," says Phil Trager. "But never a garden. So I was curious to see if I could bring my feelings and aesthetic to what was, for me, new territory. I think, in the end, I succeeded in making this garden my own." Fuchs notes that, "the project began because I'd been thinking of creating a record of our property for many years. I wanted a photographer to capture the scope, depth and detail that I perceive on a daily basis. After meeting Phil, it became clear to me that I wanted him to shoot Birdsong--and also that it was important that he approach it in his own way, not as documentaries."--Press release.

Alternative Title

Gardens of Russell & Lauren Fuchs

Subjects

• Fuchs, Russell
• Gardens > Connecticut > Fairfield
• Birdsong (Fairfield, Conn.)
• Fuchs, Lauren

Note

• "Printed in an edition of 1,000."--Colophon.

Contents

Spring -- Summer --Autumn -- Winter -- Birdsong : a magical pursuit / Russell Fuchs.

Call Number

JQH 17-20

ISBN

• 0692893709
• 9780692893708

Author

Trager, Philip, 1935- photographer.

Title

Birdsong : the gardens of Russell & Lauren Fuchs / photographs by Philip Trager.

Publisher

Fairfield, Connecticut : Laru Associates, LLC, 2017.

Type of Content

still image

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Local Note

Gift of Philip Trager.

Added Author

Fuchs, Russell, contributor.

Research Call Number

JQH 17-20