Large-format illustrated book “Merlin’s Dream” with photographs by Patrizio Di Renzo, published by Zauberkind. Black hardcover with dust jacket and bookmark ribbon. Very good used condition.

343 pp. with double-page colour plates. Illustrated original cloth binding with silver-stamped spine and cover title, with original colour-illustrated dust jacket. 

Poetic images of perfect natural beauty in its decay.

Patrizio Di Renzo publishes his second art book. “Merlin’s Dream” is larger and more extensive than its predecessor, yet no longer as glamorous. No stars, nor prominent names, define the current work. Using flowers – poetic, mystical and at the same time graceful and moving – Di Renzo explains the beauty of transience with colours that reach into the depths and photography that could just as well have been painted.

Subtly, the internationally active Patrizio Di Renzo, who operates in the top league of fashion and celebrity photography, pursues the idea of Merlin’s dreams. He creates a visual world that slows things down and makes the viewer pause. His still lifes are reduced to the essentials and contain a colour power whose intensity is further reinforced against the consistently dark backgrounds.

Precisely in the world of stars and top models, in which photographer Di Renzo moves every day, he is surrounded by glamour, perfectionism, vain appearance and a youthful ideal of beauty. With his latest work, Di Renzo now presents a personal aesthetic counter-movement. Back to nature, to everyday life, to transience.

The flower serves as a muse. There is no distraction beside it. Only then does the organic nature of the plant truly come to the fore. Each image contains a study of decay and was accompanied by days of observation by the photographer. For a full two years, Di Renzo devoted himself to studying a wide variety of blossoms. In this careful way, the result was