IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT PALM Charles Johnstone

“In Search of the Perfect Palm” is Johnstone’s homage to Girault de Prangey . In 1842 de Prangey an artist and explorer set out on a three year trip to the Eastern Mediterranean . In Athens armed with a camera and a new photo technique known as the daguerreotype , he came across a Palm tree near the Church of Saints Theodore 
 
It was the daguerreotype of this image that Johnstone saw in 2019 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in an exhibition titled “A Monumental Journey”   that started him on the search for “ the perfect palm”. The image was very modern and unusual  for its time. A close up full plate image of the fronds of the palm tree. 
 
The book is soft cover with Japanese stab binding. An edition of 120 copies with a short essay by Johnstone. The 18 Palm tree images   were shot on expired Polaroid film in order to best replicate the daguerreotype . A photo of the daguerreotype  is also shown. 
 
2023
soft cover, Japanese stab binding
7 1/4” x 10 3/8” (185 mm x 360 mm)
52 pages, 18 Polaroid images 
printed in Dalton, Mass by the Studley Press
edition of 100  
 
out of stock