About the Event

Firsthand Experiences bring contemporary artists together with learners ages 13 and up for hands-on programs that combine making, gallery conversations, and discovery.

In this workshop, Amy Lamb, scientist turned photographer, teaches how she cultivates and captures the souls of plants in her images and helps you to create your own photographs. The workshop begins at NMWA, where participants will experience Lamb’s work on view. Then, the group heads to the United States Botanic Garden, where they will meet staff to learn about and photograph in-season plants. Digital camera or cell phone required.

This program is presented in collaboration with the United States Botanic Garden.

About the Artist Instructor:

Amy Lamb’s career as a scientist and artist spans over 50 years. Its origins were embedded in her family’s immersive love of nature’s beauty as well as her life-long interest in the natural sciences. Her current professional career unites the intriguing aesthetics of art and science in botanical forms.

After graduating from University of Michigan with a PhD in cellular biology, Amy pursued research in mammalian protein synthesis and RNA transcription at the Basel Institute for Immunology and National Institutes of Health. Her transition to an artistic approach to science springs from the power of imagery to broadly convey the connection of nature’s botanical form and structure with its functions of pollination and survival. Amy honed her expertise in studio photography at the Montgomery College, the Corcoran School of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Amy photographs plants with scientific precision and curiosity, creating botanical portraits that reveal the beauty of form and color. Most of the plants she photographs are grown in her garden, where she observes and captures seasonal transitions: spring buds, summer blooms, autumn seeds, and the dormant stage of winter. Amy’s work is in private and corporate collections and public institutions such as National Museum of Women in the Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Dallas Arboretum, and National Academy of Sciences.

Questions? Email education@nmwa.org.