When one of the world’s leading photographers of hyper-beautiful gardens decides that beauty is no longer enough, it captures your attention.
In this most recent Talk, we heard first hand from Australian photographer Claire Takacs about her epic two-year journey to explore and document 80 of the most innovative garden landscapes from around the world.
For this trip, her focus shifted to projects that dare to take on the bigger questions about sustainability, pollution, biodiversity, and urbanization, all in the face of climate change. The solutions found and realized are astounding. And in many cases, beautiful in a whole other way.
Claire collaborated with multi-talented Italian landscape architect and writer Giacomo Guzzon to create a monumental book based on these travels:– Visionary: Gardens and Landscapes for Our Future.
Our Talk coincided with its North American release, and both Claire and Giacomo were on hand to discuss the story of its making and what they discovered along the way.
I served as host to keep the conversation flowing and moderate any questions from our audience.
In review: Every picture tells a story
Here is an ultra wide-angle book that allows us to radically catch up with the state of naturalistic and ecological garden design via some of the most innovative landscape projects in the world.
The cumulative effect is mindblowing. I cannot overstate the importance of being able to visually experience, one by one, this extensive portfolio of brilliantly diverse projects from the likes of Tom-Stuart Smith, Piet Oudolf, James Hitchmough, Dan Pearson, Michael McCoy, Arjan Boekel, Lauren Springer, Larry Weaner, and many, many more designers and architects.
The landscapes traverse a succession of continents with the landscapes shifting from Tasmania to Spain and from Singapore to New Zealand. Each project leads with a neatly chiselled description to provide context with the project background and story and to detail the innovations at play.
From this point, Claire lets her photography do the talking in clean layouts presenting charismatic moments in each of the landscapes caught with remarkable attention to detail and sensitivity.
It’s the kind of coffee table book designed to spark new ideas and every aspect has been designed to sweeten its impact. On a technical level, Visionary features the finest photographic production I can remember in a garden design title.
This is high-level inspiration for all those searching for the very big next thing, that more than likely, is already here.
Only now, we know for sure.
Claire Takacs: Photographer
Claire Takacs has been capturing gardens and landscapes in all their wild mercurial beauty for the past 20-years.
As an incredibly well-travelled Aussie, Claire focuses on the magical properties of light to capture the essence of wilder gardens and modern architectural landscapes. Her luminous work has come to help define the visual look of international magazines like Gardens Illustrated and many others. Claire’s latest book, Visionary: Gardens and Landscapes for Our Future is published by Hardie Grant Books, is arguably her masterpiece to date and well-deserving of the title. Previous books include: Dreamscapes (Hardie Grant), Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens by Dan Hinkley (Timber Press) and Wild: The Naturalistic Garden, with text by Noel Kingsbury (Phaidon).
Giacomo Guzzon: Writer
Giacomo Guzzon is a landscape architect who also lectures in planting design at the University of Greenwich, University of Sheffield and the KLC School of Design in London. He is a Principal Landscape Architect and Head of Planting Design at the international landscape architecture firm Gillespies in London. Giacomo contributes to a variety of international conferences and publications. He has lectured in Hong Kong, the USA, and Europe. He is currently pursuing a PhD in plant science at the Technical University in Berlin.
Note: Feature image is designer Lauren Springer’s home garden in the state of Colorado USA.
Loved the presentation!
A before and after shot would have been interesting to understand the transformation of a space. Though not part of this book due to its beauty and part that Claire played in the design of each layout and page. Thank you both for sharing this vision with others!
Thanks Susanne. Great point about the before/after – it’s something I make a point of doing in my own garden landscapes, so I can see the progress and transformation. Given Claire’s approach, it’s more about capturing the after.