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Jonathan Singer in front of his photograph of
Hippeastrum 'Toscana', a new hybrid amaryllis.

Photograph by Howard Schatz

About photographer
John Singer

A podiatrist turned photographer, Dr. John Singer rediscovered an early love of photography when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease five years ago and stopped performing surgery. He was recently named a Hasselblad Laureate Award winner based on his contribution to fine art photography and to “our perception and appreciation of the botanical world.” Over the past year, Singer has been featured by CBS Sunday Morning, Vanity Fair, Smithsonian magazine, The Washington Post, ABC 7 News, ARTnews, and Audubon magazine.

As a research collaborator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Singer has enjoyed unprecedented access to the institution’s research greenhouse, home to some of the world’s rarest plants. Botanica Magnifica not only features beautiful rare flowers, but issues a call to preserve these natural works of art.

A longtime resident of New Jersey, Singer is an active member of his community and was recently named a Hudson County Cultural Ambassador and was awarded a NAACP Community Service Award for his work with local high-school art teachers and students.

In addition to his work with the Smithsonian, his podiatry practice, and his ongoing photography projects, Singer is a consultant to the United States National Arboretum, Hasselblad, and Takahashi Telescopes.

About author W. John Kress

W. John Kress, Ph.D., is a curator of botany and research scientist at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution, and was formerly the chairman of the Smithsonian’s Department of Botany. The author of more than one hundred popular scientific papers on tropical botany, his books include The Weeping Goldsmith: Discoveries in the Secret Land of Myanmar; Heliconia: An Identification Guide; A New Century of Biology (with Gary Barrett); A Checklist of the Trees, Shrubs, Herbs, and Climbers of Myanmar; and Plant Conservation: A Natural History Approach (with Gary Krupnick).

Dr. Kress is currently the executive director of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also an adjunct professor of biology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences in Yunnan.

Kress’s research interests focus on the evolution of and relationships among tropical plants, especially Heliconia, gingers, and relatives. His field studies focus on the evolution of pollination systems, speciation in tropical angiosperms, and the conservation of tropical ecosystems.

About author Marc Hachadourian

Marc Hachadourian is the curator of glasshouse collections for the New York Botanical Garden. He has been in integral part of the staff for more than eight years first as the horticulturist for the orchid collection and now overseeing all the glasshouse collections. He has more than 20 years experience in horticulture specializing in orchids, aquatics, bulbs and alpines. An active member of many professional societies, Hachadourian has a strong interest in the conservation and cultivation of all groups of plants. He has lectured in the U.S. and abroad and is part of the Professional Horticulture faculty of the New York Botanical Garden. In addition, he is a member of the IUCN Orchid Specialist Group (International Union of Conservation Naturalists) and actively participates in conservation studies, contributing his expertise in conservation of all types of orchids. He has studied and observed orchids in the wild in South America, Australia, Europe, South Africa, and Australia. With several national television appearances, photography, and his botanical illustrations, Hachadourian has dedicated himself to increasing public awareness about the importance of global plant conservation and the appreciation of plant biodiversity.

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