ARTS&LIFE
ON THE COVER
ON THE COVER

B

otanical artist Laurie 
Tennent has had 
a lifelong passion 
for the art of capturing 
images. The Birmingham 
native, who attended the 
College for Creative Studies 
in Detroit and received a 
bachelor of fine arts degree 
in photography, has had her 
work featured in public and 
private art galleries around 
the world.
With her photography on 
display through October at 
City Bloom: Birmingham, a 
3-mile outdoor installation 
along the Rouge River 
Trail that runs through 
Booth Park, Quarton Lake 
and Linden Park, the all 
botanical-themed exhibit 
is just one of many creative 
projects Tennent, soon to be 
60, has in the works.
“I really love historical 
botanical drawings and 
Dutch paintings,” she says 
of the two key influences 
on her style. “They’re really 
rich and very dark in the 
background.”
For Tennent’s botanical 
photography in particular, 
where flowers pop in color 
against similarly dark 
backgrounds, she calls her 
twist on these two styles a 
“contemporary botanical 
illustration.” 
“In using photography as 
the medium, the images are 
classic in their composition,” 
she explains, “but they’re 
presented in a very 
contemporary, sleek contrast 
with metal frame to the edge, 
so they almost appear like a 
painting on canvas.”

PHOTO ART GALLERY
It’s this distinctive, dramatic 
presentation of her work 
that has drawn people to 
Tennent’s photography for 
decades. After graduation, 
she began to build her now-
renowned career by working 
in local art galleries. “I 
really learned a lot about the 
business of handling artists 
and also what it took for 
artists to get their work into 
galleries,” she says. “I learned 
how the galleries worked 
with their artists to promote 
their careers.”
Inspired to launch her own 
gallery, Tennent took these 
important lessons with her 
as she opened Eton Street 
Gallery in Birmingham. “I 
featured the finer work of 
commercial photographers 
all over the country,” she 
explains.
This gave commercial 
photographers a chance to 
showcase their work, which 
Tennent says many of these 
artists didn’t have a chance 
to do. “There were a lot of 
great car photographers in 
Detroit, and they had all this 
great personal work that no 
one ever saw,” she recalls 
as an example, alongside 
architectural photographers.
Yet Tennent found that 
showcasing these works 
alone couldn’t support the art 
gallery in keeping the space 
open. Already experienced in 
the business of commercial 
photography, Tennent joined 
the industry and began to do 
catalog work.
She took photos for 
specialty retailers like J. 
Crew and Crate & Barrel, 

MACKENZIE O’BRIEN

Photographer brings joy 
through botanical art.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
PHOTOS BY LAURIE TENNENT

34 | JULY 8 • 2021 

 Laurie
Tennent

