Each season brings with it both subtle and dramatic shifts in the sun’s light and the southwestern landscape. Full, leafy trees cast deep shadows in the summer, but the same scene becomes one of bare branches and evenly lit, snowy ground in the low sun of winter. Georgia O’Keeffe photographed her environment in all seasons, capturing the naturally changing foliage and light before her lens.
Georgia O’Keeffe
American, 1887–1986
Road from Abiquiú
1964–68
Road from Abiquiú
1964–68
Black-and-white Polaroids (diffusion transfer prints)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, 2006.6.1079, 2006.6.1078. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
O’Keeffe wrote of the landscape near her home: “The valley is wide and flat with a row of bare trees on the far side—masking the river that I do not see because of them—then a very fine long mountain rises beyond. It is all frosty this morning—The sun this time of year hits the mountain first—then the trees— with a faint touch of pink—then spreads slowly across the valley as sun light.”
Georgia O’Keeffe
American, 1887–1986
Road out Bedroom Window
Likely 1957
Gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Anonymous Gift, 1977, 1977.657.3. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
In total, seven photographs of the mesa and road outside O’Keeffe’s east window track the view at different times of the year. They document naturally occurring changes to the relationships of form and light in the landscape. In one photograph, the strong summer sun cast hard shadows onto the silvery road, while in another the diffuse light of spring highlights the new growth of the thin foliage.
Georgia O’Keeffe
American, 1887–1986
Road Past the View
1964
Oil paint on canvas
Collection of Carl & Marilynn Thoma © 2022 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of the Thoma Foundation
O’Keeffe emphasized the value of photography in a 1976 book: “The road fascinates me with its ups and downs and finally its wide sweep… I had made two or three snaps of it with a camera. For one of them I turned the camera at a sharp angle to get all the road. It was accidental that I made the road seem to stand up in the air, but it amused me and I began drawing and painting it as a new shape.”
Unknown Photographer
Georgia O’Keeffe with Camera, Chow, and Unidentified Woman on Ghost Ranch Patio
1964–70
Chromogenic print
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe: Museum Purchase, 2014.3.312. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Though very few consider O’Keeffe’s paintings and drawings as portraits, the artist herself saw things differently: “I have painted portraits that to me are almost photographic. I remember hesitating to show the paintings, they looked so real to me. But they have passed into the world as abstractions—no one seeing what they are.” In her photographic practice, however, O’Keeffe often produced clear portraits capturing her friends and associates as she saw them.
Georgia O’Keeffe
American, 1887–1986
Chama River
1957–63
Chama River
1957–63
Chama River
1957–63
Gelatin silver prints
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, 2006.6.1311, 2006.6.1313, 2006.6.1315. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Located between O’Keeffe’s Abiquiú home and Ghost Ranch, this south-facing elevation overlooks the Rio Chama as it makes a tight bend. O’Keeffe photographed the view in a variety of seasons, capturing the changing depth of the rushing water, the density of foliage, and the deepness of shadows throughout the year. These three pictures, likely made on the same day, capture the minute-to-minute changes.
Todd Webb
American, 1905–2000
Georgia O’Keeffe Photographing the Chama River
1961
Gelatin silver print, enlarged and cut contact sheet
Courtesy of the Todd Webb Archive. © Todd Webb Archive, Portland, Maine, USA
In 1957, Todd Webb wrote to O’Keeffe, “Will we stand on the bridge and watch the Chama in flood?” The pair often visited this spot, located between O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch property and her main house in Abiquiú. In these three frames, Webb captured O’Keeffe as she moved along the rise, reframing the river view with her camera.
Georgia O’Keeffe
American, 1887–1986
Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium)
1964–68
Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium)
1964–68
Black-and-white Polaroids (diffusion transfer prints)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, 2006.6.1070, 2006.6.1076. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
O’Keeffe’s photographs of Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium) found around her home exemplify her interests in seasonal and daily changes in nature. The trumpet-like flowers bloom from late summer through the first frost, opening in the afternoon and closing with the rising sun the next day. For the artist, her renderings of flowers were about detail, light and shade, and formal juxtaposition.
Georgia O’Keeffe
American, 1887–1986
White Flower
1929
Oil paint on canvas
The Cleveland Museum of Art: Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection, 1930.2162. © 2022 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art
O’Keeffe is perhaps best known for her paintings of flowers—their enlarged structures fill the canvas and absorb the viewer in O’Keeffe’s unique vision of nature. She magnified her painted flowers, the artist said, so that viewers would “be surprised into taking time to look at it.” O’Keeffe rendered her blooms at their peak, capturing this fleeting view of nature in enveloping detail.
“Georgia O’Keeffe in New Mexico, Stark visions of a pioneer painter”
March 1, 1968
Published in LIFE magazine, vol. 64, no. 9
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Courtesy of the Hirsch Library
LIFE magazine’s 1968 cover story focused on O’Keeffe’s passion for light and shade. The first line of the article, “Light edges over the darkened cliffs,” brought readers into O’Keeffe’s visual world and emphasized the intimate connection between her luminous environment and her art. The accompanying photographs by John Loengard highlighted her vision, presenting O’Keeffe in her shadow-filled, roofless room and with starkly rendered skulls.
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Georgia O'Keeffe, Photographer is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, with the collaboration of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe. Support for the Denver Art Museum exhibition is provided by the Kristin and Charles Lohmiller Exhibitions Fund, the Adolph Coors Exhibition Endowment Fund, the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign, and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). Promotional support is provided by 5280 Magazine and CBS4.