Aaron Rose Photographs

Aaron Rose has created one of the most remarkable bodies of work of any photographer living today, and for most of his career he did this in isolation, in a single-minded quest for visual enlightenment. He was virtually unknown to the photography world until five of his prints were exhibited at the 1997 Whitney Biennial, when he was in his late fifties.

Rose's images -- completely original visions of trees and plants; sun, stars, and clouds; shells; the New York City skyline -- are miracles of light and chemistry. A magician who builds his own cameras and mixes complex developing solutions incorporating exotic metals, Rose has spent the last 35 years taking and superbly printing more than 25,000 photographs, most of them from negatives that he printed once or twice and then put away forever. This book offers the first-ever presentation of Rose's work, which has been quietly collected by major museums over the past few years, as well as a vivid portrait of the man himself, speaking to author Alfred Corn about photography, science, art, and commitment.