Eden Project

Photos of Eden’s plants on show at Royal Cornwall Museum

Stunning photos of plants in Eden’s Rainforest Biome have just gone on display at the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro.

The Cornwall-based photographer Trevor Ashby was inspired to create his ‘Earthly Delights’ series by the intricate structures of the many exotic leaves that fall on the paths of Eden’s Biomes.

Trevor said: “It all started when I saw a leaf on the ground, which seemed to have a life of its own. It looked more like a strange animal than a dead leaf.”

Paying weekly visits to Eden over a period of four years, Trevor was given permission by our team to photograph the tropical plants in situ. He set them against black velvet and used only natural light with long exposures – a technique which, he says, makes the subject matter seem ‘to glow within infinity’.

The former art teacher and painter came up against all sorts of challenges while photographing in such an unusual environment, including a steamy lens, an incredible thirst, overcast days, and pollen and insects invading the pure black velvet.

But Trevor didn’t seem phased – in fact quite the opposite. He told us: ’There is a huge sense of mystery when taking these photos – you don’t know exactly what hidden beauty may be revealed in the darkroom. Sometimes I can’t sleep because I get so excited and I have to get up to develop the film at 2am.’

‘Earthly Delights’, originally displayed at the Eden Project in 2008, has been updated with new photographs of artefacts from the Royal Cornwall Museum’s archive. The free exhibition runs at the museum until Saturday 2 April 2011.

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Art, Cornwall, Horticulture, Inspiration

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Art, Cornwall, gardens, Horticulture, plants