Creative Inspiration and Influences
by Paulette Tavormina
My first love was antiques. As a child, my grandmother often took me to a cluttered shop near her home, where she once bought me a miniature wooden table much like the ones I still use in my photographs. I began collecting small treasures—shells, keys, dice, ephemera, tiny ceramic dishes—and arranging them into stories. My bedroom became a museum of little things. Though my siblings teased me (and still do), they now bring me objects that make their way into my work—Italian honeybees, pea tendrils from the garden, oyster shells from Norway.
Another lasting influence was my grandparents’ garden, where they grew the most spectacular dahlias. I remember walking through rows of blossoms taller than I was, captivated by their colors and forms. Today I grow dahlias in my own garden, and they often find their way into my photographs. For me, they carry both personal memory and artistic inspiration—linking past and present, family and creative vision.
Egg tempera painting by Sarah McCarty, the dear friend who introduced me to seventeenth-century still-life masters such as Giovanna Garzoni and Maria Sibylla Merian.
Sarah McCarty, placeholder image and text for Paulette to update
Giovanna Garzoni, Still Life with Bowl of Citrons — a timeless inspiration for my work.
The work of Maria Sibylla Merian, revealing the intricate beauty of the natural world, has profoundly shaped my vision as a contemporary photographer.
Maria Sibylla Merian, Bird and Poppy.
Flemish painting from the Weldon Collection sold at Sothebys, was inspiration for my series of Vanitas.
After working in an antiques store in Boston, I moved to New York and joined Sotheby’s Parke Bernet, surrounded by extraordinary works of art. Later, in Santa Fe, I was asked to photograph historic Native American pottery. With help from a local photographer, I immersed myself in studio work, and during that time, my friend Sarah McCarty introduced me to seventeenth-century still-life painters like Giovanna Garzoni and Maria Sibylla Merian. Their palettes and compositions were a revelation, and I knew I wanted to create my own natura morta still lifes with photography.
My career took me in many directions—commercial photography, food styling, and film. For Oliver Stone’s Nixon, I recreated twenty-five copies of Richard Nixon’s resignation letter for Anthony Hopkins to sign on camera. For The Astronaut’s Wife, I staged a Dutch still-life banquet of papayas, pheasants, geese, and roasted quails—directly inspired by the great food film Babette’s Feast. Each project drew me closer to the still-life language I longed to develop.
Travel has also deeply shaped my vision. While tracing family roots in Sicily, I gathered fruit and shells from my cousin’s garden, antiques from Paris and London flea markets, and curiosities like a miniature brass scale, chestnut pods from Versailles, and snails from Palermo—objects that continue to find their way into my photographs.
The Beginning of My Story
My grandparents, where inspiration and influences took root.
My grandparents, whose garden first taught me beauty, where towering dahlias grew in magnificent abundance.
The little one is me, with my grandparents, brother and sister, harvesting apples from their garden.
When I returned to New York in 2005, I rejoined Sotheby’s, bought my first digital camera, and devoted weekends to creating still lifes inspired by the Old Masters. Encouragement from colleagues was invaluable—especially Denise Bethel and Beth Iskander in Photography, and Andrea Kust in Old Master Paintings. In 2009, the Robert Klein Gallery in Boston began representing me, an extraordinary turning point.
Still-life photography enables me to create an environment, arrange objects to tell a story, and direct them into the fantasy I imagine. This brings me full circle—back to my first love of arranging and curating. Beauty is fleeting, yet it can be preserved forever in a single photograph. Creating these heartfelt vignettes allows me to explore love and loss, joy and sorrow—while remaining grateful for life’s abundance, and seizing that beauty.
Shared Beginnings
My parents, pausing for a quick photograph — jackets and ties concealing the garden overalls beneath.
With brother and sister, where laughter and teasing first bloomed.
With brother and sister, carrying forward the stories of our past.
The Nurtured Garden
Tulips and dogwood from my garden, arranged to reflect the ephemeral harmony of nature that continues to influence my work.
White blossom with cherry tomatoes, French beans, and kale, freshly gathered from the garden.
Grand dahlias in full bloom, their vivid colors gathered from my garden.
A cluster of morning glories, fragile and fleeting, yet radiant in their simplicity.
Grand dahlia clippings from my garden, gathered in my grandfather’s basket.
Pear tree in late summer, its fruit nearly ready for harvest.
Morning glories, tender blooms that capture the quiet beauty of dawn.
A bed of dahlias in full bloom, bursting with late-summer color.
Dahlias at their peak, waiting to be gathered.
The garden alive with dahlias, blossoms ready for cutting — many of which find their way into my photographs.
Delicate Lily of the Valley blossoms nestled inside vibrant Dutch tulips.
The flower bed I watch over through the seasons, alive in full bloom.
A fig tree flourishes in my garden, grown from a cutting of my grandfather’s tree — a living continuation of his legacy.
A bed of periwinkle hydrangeas, flourishing by my home, their blossoms a constant muse in my photographs.
My Photo Studio
Insects once passing — butterflies, flies, and bees — carefully preserved, their timeless beauty now immortalized in my photographs.
From the garden, roses freshly cut — soon to be transformed into still life.
While I was shooting the photograph, Fellini, the smaller of the two Ragdoll brothers jumped on my set and began to sniff the beautiful aroma of the lilacs from the garden. I quickly shot a multitude of images with him.
Butterfly, insects & critter collection. I have been collecting these for years and finally purchased boxes and organized them. Took weeks - but now I can view them easily.
Flowers on a cold, rainy day…
At Sotheby’s Food in Art event, I staged a still life reminiscent of my studio — an evening enriched by Russell Wilson and Chef Mark Ladner.