Large, small, white, almost black, angled, globuliform, hot, cold, growing on trees like epiphytes, on rocks like lithophytes, just a few grams in weight, up to tons, very rare, very common, on the surface or underground. This is the fascinating world of the most numerous family of flowering plants in nature: orchids.
The exhibition can be visited in the Bonsai Greenhouse until September 17th.
The orchids, those plants that have always awakened the imagination and arouse thoughts of exoticism and legend, are the protagonists of the photographic exhibition El jardinillo en flor. Botanical Orchid Collection that the Royal Botanic Garden (RJB-CSIC) of Madrid offers its visitors this summer at the hands of the orchid curator and photographer Gerardo Torres.
The objective of the exhibition, which can be visited until September 17 in the Greenhouse of Bonsai of the RJB, in addition to putting in value the collection of orchids of the Botanical Garden, is to denounce that many species are disappearing from the biodiversity map by the performance of the hand of man in many of the places where they grow.
“The communities of these plants, established in all the biomes of the planet, with the exception of desert dunes and polar helmets, are in serious danger of diminishing until they disappear due to the reduction of their ecosystems and the direct intervention of the human being on populations of plants established naturally in their respective thermal floors and natural environments,” says Gerardo Torres. And, he adds, "many species of orchids have already disappeared from nature, leaving only specimens that are grown in private collections, botanical gardens and in greenhouses of producers who trade with them."
The Royal Botanic Garden (RJB-CSIC) of Madrid has set itself the goal of having, within its collections, a representative group of these plants, growing in its facilities in order to track its growth behaviors and its spectacular blooms
A photographic testimony of the last eight years
The photo exhibition El jardinillo en flor. Botanical Orchid Collection is a testament to the photographic follow-up that Gerardo Torres has been doing in these plants during the last 8 years. The exhibition presents a set of images of plants that are true rarities within such a collection and worked in such a way that the spectator can enjoy an aesthetic appeal based on composition, color, lights and colors.
It is composed of 25 photographs of plants from all continents, being the largest number in South America, where you can see a remarkable amount and variety of this family.
Gerardo José Torres García (Valera, Venezuela 1973) began growing orchids and bromeliads at the young age of 12 in Trujillo, one of the three Andean provinces of his native country, Venezuela. He says that when he looked for information in books and manuals about these plants, he examined the images that related them and that the photos did not always correspond to the species found in the mountains.
Thus, in full youth, at age 20, he began to relate orchids and photography, two of his great passions, the first as a conservative and the second as a great fan. Already in Spain, in 2006, he delved into the field of images.
“I was inclined to take photographs of the orchid blooms in such a way that its complex and attractive structure could be appreciated. I focused on being able to capture what for the eye of the cultivators is the fundamental thing, the forms and pictorial features that make the species characteristic. With photography I try to show the natural universes that surround us and, unfortunately, we forget to be unnoticed in our eyes,” says Gerardo Torres.
His work has been exhibited in Asturias (XLI National Art Contest of Luarca, 2010), Basque Country (Municipal Culture House of Basauri, Vizcaya, 2015) or Madrid (PHotoEspaña, Portfolio Viewing, 2016).
