Structural Beauty: Photographs of the San Francisco Botanical Garden by Mark Citret
Structural Beauty: Photographs of the San Francisco Botanical Garden by Mark Citret
February – May 2025
The Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture presents Structural Beauty: Photographs of the San Francisco Botanical Garden by Mark Citret. Please join us for the artist’s reception on Saturday, February 8 from 2-4pm.
When I’m photographing, in the Botanical Garden or anywhere else, I’m seldom looking for anything in particular. So it’s not necessarily an easy question to answer. After that moment of thought, I answered, “I’m looking for whatever is looking for me.” -Mark Citret
Photographs by Mark Citret
Artists’ Statement
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need~ Cicero, ca. 50BC
When I’m out photographing, it’s apparent to anyone who sees me that photography is the main thing, if not the only thing, on my mind. My camera is relatively large, mounted on a tripod, and I’m carrying a small backpack filled with lenses, extra film, and assorted other accessories. It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to infer that making photographs is on my mind. On one foggy morning, while photographing at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, I was approached by a man carrying his infant in a front-loading Snuggly baby carrier. “What are you looking for?”, he asked.
I had to take a moment before answering. When I’m photographing, in the Botanical Garden or anywhere else, I’m seldom looking for anything in particular. So it’s not necessarily an easy question to answer. After that moment of thought, I answered, “I’m looking for whatever is looking for me.” From the quizzical look he gave me I could only imagine that he was not expecting this sort of enigmatic answer. But I realized as I was saying it that it was the only truthful answer I could come up with. What I “look for” when I’m photographing, is something, anything, that reaches out and seems to speak directly to me. And what that voice is suggesting is along lines of, “Hey you!, There’s a picture hiding here.”
The act of photographing for me is a process of keeping myself open to whatever visual stimulation is happening around me. I take it as an article of faith that there is, or very soon will be, something remarkable presenting itself. This is true whether I’m in a construction site, Yosemite National Park, downtown San Francisco, or anyplace else. What keeps me coming back with fresh film in my camera is an endless fascination with the threads that are woven together to create the tapestry that surrounds us.
I grew up less than one mile from the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park, and for the last 39 years have lived in Daly City, no more than a 20-minute drive from the Garden. But until six years ago I had never photographed there. The Botanical Garden had lurked in my mind for a long time, and I had always suspected that someday I would venture in to photograph. That day came in 2016, and since then the Garden has been the primary focus of my photographic life. Luckily, the Covid pandemic, when it descended upon us in the Spring of 2020, had very little impact on my ability to work in the Garden. In fact, it was perfect: an open and outdoor location where it was easy to maintain distance from others, especially in the early morning hours when I preferred to be there.
At this point I should mention that I’m not particularly a “plant person”. I’ve never been a gardener, and I don’t have any house plants. But I am something of an addict of visual stimulation, which is what my life as a photographer has been an endless attempt to come to terms with. In the botanical world I find, for all practical purposes, an infinite source of that stimulation. The San Francisco Botanical Garden provides me with a 55 acre “universe” that I can endlessly explore.
My fascination with the plants begins with their physical beauty, which translates so well into my chosen language of the black and white photograph. But it has evolved into something far beyond that: an expanding reverence for the life force itself. Every feature of every species has evolved the way it has for a reason, and that alone is a cause for wonder, whether I make the photograph or not.
Visit the Library
No admission is required to visit the new art exhibit in the Library. The Library is located inside the Main Gate of San Francisco Botanical Garden on the left-hand side.
