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