HomeCharities & FundraisersDavid Leaser’s Unique Perspective Returns to The Huntington

David Leaser’s Unique Perspective Returns to The Huntington

By Mady Renn
CONTRIBUTOR

Photographer David Leaser calls his biography “truly a Huntington story!” In his free talk taking place where it all began, at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, he will share behind the scenes, close-up details about his inspiration, techniques, and processes in photographing flowers. Botany to photography enthusiasts will have a chance to learn from Leaser’s unique interpretation on the beauty of minutiae in nature on April 14.

Leaser developed his idiosyncratic techniques through chance encounters, space-age technology, and, most of all, incredible creativity. He began photographing as a child, and then as a hobby when working for IBM, but said he “fell away from it” as a businessman. He then took a trip to Florida that changed his career—and life—trajectory. He photographed the Florida Fairchild Tropical Gardens and took the photos back to a developer in Westwood. As he looked, disappointed, at his recently processed photos, Leaser happened to meet a National Geographic photographer. The photographer passed on advice that Leaser will share in his Garden Talk.

He went on to embody the advice in his work, becoming inspired by the idiosyncratic and peculiars of single flowers—flowers so often stepped on or overlooked in daily life. He took his camera places from the Amazon to the Huntington, and began “elevating little [flowers] to rock star status.” It took him two years to hone in his process, using MRI and NASA technology. Since then, Leaser has 11 works on permanent display at the Huntington. He has been featured on ABC News, Fox News, Architectural Digest, NikonWorld Magazine, Sunset Magazine and New York Times. He has also garnered international esteem as the recipient of the Grand Champion of Nature award, International Photography Award’s silver medal, and Moscow International Foto Award’s 2014 first prizewinner.

His talk will be a generous sharing of his techniques, processes, and inspirations. He is interested in showing his own perspective, but also inspiring audiences to find their own unique angle. Leaser says, “perspective is in the brain, everyone of us is different,” those differences have the ability to color the world with the beauty of difference.

Leaser will be sharing his knowledge about California natives, a dying—and even sometimes already dead—species of flowers. His talk will involve subjects from Dutch farmers in the 17th century, Santa Barbara tulips and “unbelievably vivid purple” irises from his own backyard.He will share his printing techniques, as well as his digitization process that often is labored on “pixel by pixel.”

Because of the closeness of his photography, he creates an abstraction and intensity to the minutiae of a single flower. The viewer is forced to realize the flora’s shape, color and texture: the individuality of a subject that so often is seen as a group. Leaser’s unique perspective is sure to inspire photographers and botanists alike.

Leaser’s event, “Garden Talk: Exploring the Beauty of California’s Native Flora,” will take place on Thursday, April 14, from 2:30 to 3:30 P.M in the Ahmanson Room of the Brody Botanical Center. The talk is free and no reservation is required.

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