Blue Violet

by Cig Harvey, Jacoba Urist (Afterword)

A book of deeply personal and lush photographs, drawings, and writing, Blue Violet is Cig Harvey's celebration of the natural world and the senses. Blue Violet is a vibrant meditation on the procession of seasons, sensory abundance, and the magic in everyday life. Part art book, botanical guide, historical encyclopedia, and poetry collection, Blue Violet is a compendium of beauty, color, and the senses. Plants, flowers, and our experience of the natural world are the threads that tie this unique book together. Exploring the five senses, Blue Violet takes the reader on a personal journey through nature and the range of human emotions. As with her previous three titles - You Look At Me Like An Emergency, Gardening at Night, and You an Orchestra You a Bomb - this book invites the reader to pause, laugh, cry, create, and become more aware of the natural world. Images and text in a variety of forms (prose poetry, recipes, lists, research pieces, diagrams) focus on immediate experience to understand the vibrancy of the senses on memory and feelings.

Genres: Photography

208 pages, Hardcover

Published May 4, 2021

Reviews

[Aleena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cig Harvey’s eye for color makes her photographs a delight to view, but it is her words that make Blue Violet so striking. She draws connections between the visuals around her and the nuances of life so deftly that I reread pages several times before feeling ready to move on from them.

[Madeleine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thing of beauty, breathtaking and deeply satisfying. An absolute must.

[Stephanie White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful!!

[Shannon Kline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous lil slice of life. 🤩

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable. Beautiful. Sensual. Part information, part memoir. All beauty.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't give this enough stars. This book is a treasure and Cig Harvey is so wildly talented, it'll take your breath away.

[Angela D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cig Harvey's fourth book is a gloriously beautiful, French fold masterpiece of color, and life being lived. (Her first three books are almost impossible to find.)

Although it appears to just be a beautifully extravagant ode to flowers and non-traditional portraits, the design and contents are beyond an ordinary "photo book". This is what all photography books dream to become! (Disclaimer - it is a photography book, but it is also so much more than a photography book!)

For me, Blue Violet is the intersection of photography, writing, and whimsical additions - such as her charts, watercolor/paint pallet, perfumes used, and the word bubbles (aka word/vision map). All of this while submerging us into a world of floral wonder.

I wholeheartedly believe this book (and Cig's future works) will inspire many future photographers, book designers, and creatives into pushing beyond stereotypical photography books, therefore giving us deeply personal art books.

Just to note, I'm not a floral loving girly type - but I adored this look at floral wonders, taking me beyond grocery store bouquets or daisies growing in the wild. Plus I have a black thumb, so this is a beautiful way to experience and "own" flowers without watching them slowly die. (😉)

[Tiane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book. I found myself completely immersed in it as soon as I opened it.