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At first glance, Don Freeman's "Branches" portfolio might call to mind the botanical studies of the early twentieth century photographer Karl Blossfeldt. Indeed, the photographers' portraits of flora share a spare, elegant, even decorative quality. But while Blossfeldt's micro-details of vines, buds and stamens are obsessively symmetrical and coolly scientific, Freeman's loosely-placed objects de nature are rendered personal by the photographer. Depth of field is used to create a subtle sense of movement, conveying one of Freeman's favorite themes: the passage all living things make from existence to non-existence. The arid, frangible state of the flora in "Branches" acknowledges this transition without mourning it.
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