Robert Walker and William Ewing — © Brian Rose

Within five minutes of arriving at the New York Photo Festival I ran into Bill Ewing, one of the curators, walking down the street. I know Bill from a long time ago when he was the curator at ICP. He was the first person to show my Iron Curtain/BerlinWall photographs. A short time later I ran into Bob Walker, a Canadian photographer who for years has been densely compressed, layered, street photographs.

Robert Walker photographs — © Brian Rose

Recently, however, he has been photographing flowers and plants with the same tightly packed energy. The color hovers between naturalistic and hyper real. They are beautiful images, but without the softness or sentimentality so often associated with the subject.