For Nature Lovers: Books That Celebrate the Great Outdoors

He was the rarest of specimens in Manhattan's no-frills wholesale Chelsea flower market back in the mid-1990s: a scruffy, wild-haired, bracelet-bedecked ex-art student working as a salesman to finance a coveted photography career. Christopher Beane brought roses and ranunculi, hairy-stemmed poppies and satiny gardenias back to his tiny apartment, so he could shoot them in the ethereal afternoon light. He filled the entire frame, floated a swirl of blossoms against a black or vividly colorful background, accenting the hauntingly graceful twist of a tulip petal, the orgiastic explosion of color at a peony's core. Flower (Artisan) showcases the work of a dazzlingly innovative talent in full bloom.