Edwin Hale Lincoln, Fruit of the Common Milkweed – The American Museum of Photography: Masterworks

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 Edwin Hale Lincoln (U.S., 1848-1938): “Asclepias syrica. Fruit of Common Milkweed”

Platinum print, 9.25 x 7.25 inches, 1906

Lincoln included this photograph in his self-published Wild Flowers of New England (produced in several editions; by 1914, the publication was comprised of 400 mounted platinum prints). While the plant at this stage is certainly not a flower, Lincoln has used it to create a dazzling visual tone-poem of shapes and shadows, lines and textures. As a purely modern photograph, it stands up well in comparison to the classic works of Edward Weston a quarter-century later.