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Seed sprouts, shoot reaches, flower blossoms, and the plant relishes all the fullness of life. But soon, its petals drop, its stalk withers, and the plant returns to the earth.

The life cycle, with all its promise and poignancy, is the subject of Janet Russek?s long-term photographic project The Seed Within. Russek began the project as a study of forms alluding to the fullness of pregnancy?ripe squashes, peaches, pears?photographed in natural light. She suspended organic matter such as egg yolks and ginseng roots within vessels of liquids, as beings in a womb. An element of decay crept in, suggesting later stages of a woman?s life such as menopause and old age.

More recently, Russek has moved into figurative work in two series on nude pregnant women and dolls. She photographs the women at close range so that bellies and breasts become abstracted, yet suffused with a divine glow, capturing her belief that ?pregnancy is about hope, faith, and love.? The portraits of dolls, however? pale figures suspended in a black void?explore the darker aspects of parenting and our human fragility and vulnerability.

Alongside her artistic work, Russek is also a private fine art photography dealer in Santa Fe. She and her husband, David Scheinbaum, founded Scheinbaum and Russek, Ltd., in 1980 (www.photographydealers.com. The company maintains an inventory of contemporary and vintage photographic works, and it exclusively represents the estates of Eliot Porter and of Beaumont and Nancy Newhall.

The couple has collaborated on two books, "Ghost Ranch: Land of Light" (Balcony Press, 1997), and "Images in the Heavens, Patterns on the Earth: The I Ching" (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2005), which won the American Association of Museums award for design in 2005. Russek was a founding member of the New Mexico Council on Photography, and she has served on the boards of the Marion Center for Photographic Arts and the Association of International Photography Art Dealers. Her work is part of the permanent collections of several museums, including the New Mexico Museum (Santa Fe), the Bibliotecque Nationale (Paris), and the High Museum of Art (Atlanta).




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New Work Doll Series Still Life I Ching Pregnancy Chairs