An interior gallery view of an installation display in 'Shared Light' by Lynn Goldsmith, at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. Photographed by Matthew Holler, the exhibition features three tall translucent fabric banners hanging vertically from high ceiling mounts alongside framed botanical and portrait photographs along a light grey gallery wall. The banners display blue-hued projections of window panes and floral silhouettes, with the center banner showing a faint silhouette portrait of a person framed by an arched grid, set above polished dark flooring reflecting the ambient blue glow. — A display in ‘Shared Light’ by Lynn Goldsmith, at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. Credit: Matthew Holler

Jagger. Bowie. Tina. Prince. Springsteen. Madonna. Lynn Goldsmith had photographed them all during the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, making iconic images of superstars in full flower.

But shooting the stars came with its own constellation of headaches. Handlers. Managers. Agents. Stylists. Assistants. They were rarely on time and they rarely had time to dedicate to Goldsmith’s meticulous lighting, framing and creative approach. Not everyone was as willing as KISS bassist Gene Simmons to step off a New York City bus in full regalia as The Demon, looking like he was commuting to a gig in Brooklyn.

So Goldsmith went outside of her home at the time in Woodstock, N.Y., and aimed her Nikon and a 50mm lens at nature’s real superstars: Flowers.

The results became the book “Flower,” published in 2000, as well this summer’s exhibition “Shared Light: Lynn Goldsmith” at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota. The show ends Sunday.

“I wanted to simplify,” Goldsmith told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “I wanted to go out and make flowers with one camera and one lens. I just wanted it to be me and, as simple as possible, with just the available light. ”

An outdoor installation display photograph by Matthew Holler from 'Shared Light' by Lynn Goldsmith, at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. A large, vertical rectangular artwork depicting close-up light pink and white dahlias with soft green leaves stands embedded along a garden pathway. Positioned beneath a large banyan tree with thick exposed roots on the left, the display overlooks a mulch-covered walking trail framed by lush tropical foliage, green shrubs, and palm trees under a bright blue sky. — A display in ‘Shared Light’ by Lynn Goldsmith, at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. Credit: Matthew Holler

The images taken “wherever the flowers were,” Goldsmith said, are a mix of extreme close-ups with deep focus captured in her golden as well as in New York City’s flower market.

Goldsmith was connected to Selby last year by the gardens’ artist-in-residence, Patti Smith, the rock n’ roll hall of famer. Smith has been a visual muse for Goldsmith for more than 50 years and has had her own Selby exhibition in recent years.

The photos during Goldsmith’s exhibition intermingle images of Smith with orchids and daisies and a bouquet of other floral images.

Smith is pictured at times in etherial poses on gauzy material backlit by the Sarasota daylight in Selby’s Payne Mansion wearing a crown of flowers. Another gallery room has a deep purple/violet theme signifying spirituality and the “fragility and endurance that flowers and friendship have in common”

On one wall is Goldsmith-penned verse inspired by Smith that reads, “Flowers and friendship—they ask the same thing of me; time, and a kind of faith that feels like waiting but isn’t.”

Other large panels outdoors are posted under towering banyan trees, snaking through a pathway that winds through the garden overlooking Sarasota Bay.

“The path is a palette of color that makes you become more conscious of what’s around you,” Goldsmith said. “That was my motivation — to enhance with color all of that greenery, particularly at this time of year when things aren’t flowering.”

“At Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, my photographs of flowers linger in that brief territory between bloom and surrender, where beauty is never separate from fragility.”

Tickets to see “Shared Light” by Lynn Goldsmith, on view through Sunday, Sept. 13 at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota are still available for $28.