His keen eye has found inspiration everywhere ? even in the garden of his Pembroke home, where the variety of flowers and foliage have proved irresistible to his inquisitive lens. Indeed, Mr. Judah has spent many years capturing the wonders of nature around him ? but not, as one would expect, in readily identifiable form. Instead, he has used a combination of powerful lenses and various types of film to present an entirely different perspective on his subjects.

Finally, after more than a decade?s accumulation of these images, Mr. Judah has been persuaded to go one step further and publish the best of them in book form. The result is a glorious, full-colour collection of over 100 surreal images which challenge the viewer not only to study each shot very carefully but also to try and identify the original subjects without looking at the captions.

Entitled ?Organic Abstractions, A New Take on the World of Plants?, this exquisitely-produced, full colour book will be available in local stores following its official launch at the Bermuda National Gallery this week.

The event is being hosted by PALS, Bermuda?s cancer charity, which will also be the sole beneficiary of all local sales of the book, thanks to Mr. Judah?s generosity.

Beyond Bermuda?s shores, ?Organic Abstractions? will also be sold in the United Kingdom, with the proceeds of sales going to two hospices there: the North London Hospice and the Hospice of the Valleys in Wales.

Apart from happily bearing what undoubtedly must be the hefty costs of publishing such a top-quality book, Mr. Judah is also generously waiving any opportunity for personal gain from sales in either country.

Asked why he chose these particular organisations as beneficiaries of his first book, he says: ?I am a director of PALS, and have been associated with the organisation from its inception. It is a wonderful organisation.

?My whole enthusiasm for hospices arises out of a meeting which I had in the 1970s with Dr. Richard Lamerton, the then-medical director of St. Joseph?s Hospice, who introduced me to the whole concept of hospices. He left St. Joseph?s and has just recently retired from the Hospice of the Valleys in Wales, and I have continued to support whatever hospice he has been associated with.

?He also has has connections with the North London Hospice, and in fact, he was out here last January to give a series of lectures on cancer care. I have been a supporter of the latest hospice at which he worked in Wales.?

But what of the author/photographer himself?

Born in Calcutta, Mr. Judah spent his early childhood travelling between India and London. Later, as a stockbroker he worked for many years in the British capital before emigrating to Bermuda in 1975.

His love of travel and photography have taken him to many corners of the globe, including some of the coldest: Antarctica, South Georgia, Spitzbergen and the North Siberian coast.

He is also a keen sailor who represented Britain in the 1968 Olympic Games, and is a qualified umpire and judge for international yacht racing regattas.

Mr. Judah says his abiding interest in 20th Century paintings has profoundly influenced his style of photography. Small wonder, then, that the new book has a very modernistic approach.

?I am open to the many different types of image which that fertile field has given us, and am able to look with an eye which is attuned accordingly,? he says in the book?s Foreword.

What was it, one wonders, about a garden hedge that would launch Mr. Judah on the long road to publication of his first book of photographs?

?It was recognition that the changing direction and quality of light on the leaves offered interesting possibilities which inspired the long journey between photographing and publishing,? he says, noting that both art ap-preciation and photography are self-taught but serious hobbies of his.

The initial hedge pictures ? once briefly featured here in an exhibition ? led to another series, this time of palm trees and fronds, after which the images just sat around in boxes for a long time while Mr. Judah pursued his interest in art and photography.

Finally, during a discussion on macro photography last year with professional photographer Marshall DeCouto, the boxes were opened and the rest is history.

?He chided me for not continuing to explore my ideas with a view to making a book,? Mr. Judah says.

?Thus encouraged, I did so by expanding my subject matter to include a much wider variety of plants than before.?

Lest anyone think shooting an extreme close-up of a living object in the great outdoors is easy, the photographer assures it is not.

?Small air currents, let alone real wind, are the bane of this sort of work since, with very narrow fields of view, the smallest movement of the subject cannot be tolerated, regardless of shutter speed,? he says.

While hedge leaves and palm fronds are reasonably stiff, fine-stemmed blossoms are infinitely more sensitive to even the most minute air movement.

However, by selecting the right sort of film, many times the obstacles were overcome, although, with his exacting eye, Mr. Judah admits ?the rejection rate was fairly high?.

In his book, the technically minded will learn the details of the type of equipment and film Mr. Judah used, and a good deal of other information besides.

The comprehensive Foreword and cover flaps provide the only text in this lovely book. Otherwise, the photographs are arranged on spacious pages with minimal identification of the original flora ? a layout which eliminates distraction from the business of absorbing in the beauty of the images themselves.

A modest man who prefers to let his work speak for him, Mr. Judah does admit however, that after 11 years of intermittent work, the birth of his first book is ?very rewarding?.

?I have taken photographs for as long as I can remember, but now to be able to do something with them, and flower forth (pun intended) into something that can be seen by the public is a rewarding thought,? he says. ?Inevitably, one looks for the imperfections, but the important part of the book is the images, and they have turned out well, I think.?

Pressed on whether or not the newest Bermuda book is unique, again his response is characteristically modest.

?I believe it is a unique project, but anything you are ever inclined to think is unique generally turns out to have been done by the Chinese in 2000 BC, so I hesitate to declare it an original project ? but I have not seen this approach before, put it that way.?

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