take it easy

S jeseni mijenjam stil života, oduvijek.

Ne baš oduvijek, ali nakon 1989 na ovamo.

Onda sam se počela mijenjati, 

otvorio mi se čitav jedan novi svijet, 

naučih živjeti drugačije od onoga 

što mi je bilo zadano, 

odnosno usađeno 

odgojem.

Inspirativno je djelovao na mene 

taj novi pogled na svijet 

i prigrlila sam ga potpuno.

 I spasila se. 

Ili, pronašla sebe 

onakvu kakva uistinu jesam.

Na taj način su moja djeca rasla 

i bez nametanja pronalazila sebe, 

godinu po godinu. 

Moj dom je dobio novu atmosferu,

zavolila se 'zakapotana' šetnja 

po oštrim vremenskim neprilikama 

i onda uživanje u toploj kupki 

i šalici kakaa 

ili mirisnog čaja

i štošta se promijenilo 

što sad već ulazi u autobiografiju,

pa ću se zaustaviti,
jer ovo je samo blog.

Otprilike je način života 

dobio ladanjsku notu 

bez obzira na doba godine,

koja godi, koja taaako godi

i koja anulira gradski stres.

I to je to.

The beauty of Christopher Baker’s photographs resides in a place that reveals that strangeness is a part of beauty. His photographs crystallize seemingly contradictory qualities that make a pure and simple picture reveal a complex and sometimes strange truth. His still life pictures, more paused than still, are a cinematic approach to an arrested moment.

Baker’s high regard of “the thing itself,” a distilled and distinctly unsentimental view of his subject, achieved through simplification, elimination and fierce dedication, reveal a clarity of vision that defies definition in words, using an “eye language” that does not translate to literature, thus remaining purely visual.

His vision embraces all subjects, in the studio or outside of it. We have collaborated on gardens, interiors, food, jewelry, cosmetics, beauty, flowers, and travel. His perception and distillation of these subjects into photographs is unique. I find his work somehow timeless. Often having a cinematic construction. In designing his book “Tulipa, A Photographer’s Botanical” I was struck by his obsession with the botanical perfection of the plant. In his isolation of individual plants into a book of portraits, he fused the history of botanical painting with studio fashion photography into a new vision of the plant world. It is a strict revisionist botanical book on the Tulip family that The New York Times Book Review called “one of the most lavish photographic visions of the plant world ever published.” This work is a perfect example of the contradictory qualities that make his photographs so compelling - Mary Shanahan