About the Notes on Chinese Gardens

My main interest is in using the photographic process as an artistic medium though in the case of the photos on these pages, I used my camera more like a notebook to interpret the creativity of others. It's also true to say that I'm interested in all aspects of design, and my wife, Jill's, interest in gardens gives me plenty of opportunities to explore the visual aspects of garden design. In May 1998 the Garden History Society of the UK ran a trip to see some of the gardens of China and I was the guy with the big camera bag!

Some of the books which have helped me understand a little about Chinese gardens are:

  • Wang, Joseph Cho. 1998. The Chinese Garden. Oxford University Press: Hong Kong.
  • Keswick, Maggie. 1986. The Chinese Garden. Academy Editions: London.
  • Liu Dun-zhen. 1993. Chinese Classical Gardens of Suzhou. McGraw-Hill: New York.
  • Morris, Edwin T. 1983. The Gardens of China. Charles Scribner's Sons: New York.
 the author, Malcolm Raggett
And an honorable mention must go to Frances Wood for writing the incredibly useful Blue Guide to China and for her willingness to answer questions on Chinese culture.
If you are interested in some technicalities, I used a 35mm camera with lenses ranging from 20mm to 200mm for the photos. The samples you see here are just a few of the 1400 slides I took. My preference is normally for the neutral colours of Ektachrome film though in hindsight Fujichrome might have given better results for the quality of light experienced during my visit. The trannies were scanned in and manipulated using Photoshop 5 and some interesting plug-ins from AutoFX.

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