There is an old adage that says: ?What the eye doesn?t see the heart doesn?t grieve over.?

Even a cursory glance through ?Organic Abstractions?, a new book of photographs by Robin Judah to be launched at the Bermuda National Gallery on Friday evening will quickly convince one of the shortcomings inherent in that saying.

Some will remember Mr. Judah?s show some ten years ago of extremely close-up photographs of minute sections of his hedge. These photographs were made with close-up lenses and magnification so that the field of focus was extremely small. The result was a fascinating, if somewhat monochromatic series of abstractions. His new book of 110 similar close-up images demonstrates what can be achieved by refining and developing a technique until it becomes the foundation for a remarkable art form.

I am not a camera buff and so cannot clearly describe the techniques involved in the creation of these astonishing and extremely beautiful images. Fortunately for those who are, there is a lucid foreword by the author describing his technique. Suffice it to say that he takes a potshot at what experience tells him is likely to be worth the considerable time and exacting trouble involved in each image. Clearly many are called and few are chosen, given that the image captured by the camera is an image that cannot be seen in the same way or even at all by the human eye.

One of the most extraordinary features of this work is the broad range of its appeal. The botanical subject of each image is given in every case (usually the Latin rather than the common name). Occasionally the image is quite readily identifiable, but most of the time even prolonged study will not betray the secret of the subject of the image.

Mr. Judah?s habit of printing some of his images upside down for greater artistic effect may compound the problem, but these are, in fact, all quite common plants that grow in most of our gardens. Many of them will provoke prolonged and fascinated study by even those with no interest in either photography as a technical process or as a medium for artists. How on earth, one will wonder, can this possibly be a photograph of a Bay Grape? Good question, but it is.

For the photographer, this book will undoubtedly be a considerable challenge.

The results are so unusual and so very impressive that I confidently expect to see numbers of photographers skulking about in the bushes with enormously long lenses and precariously balanced tripods trying to match the effects achieved in this book. Few, I imagine, will succeed. They are truly impressive, extraordinarily beautiful, and the result of years of meticulous polishing of an out-of-the-way concept.

For anyone who enjoys photography as an art form this book is a treat that can be returned to again and again. I have had it by my chair for a week, dipping into it again and again and I still don?t feel ready to write about it. The combination of highly effective composition with the kind of colour scheme that nature alone can provide when the paintbrush will fail is little short of breathtaking. In my less exhilarated moments I worry about the amount of film that probably wound up ?on the cutting room floor?. However much there was, it was worth it.

It would be close to futile to try to describe any of these photographs.

When I say that a photograph of ordinary moss brought to my mind a school of leaping dolphins one can, perhaps, begin to fathom the excitement and fascination inherent in these pages.

A shot of Darrell?s Fleabane might have served as inspiration for Grinling Gibbons or Palms for Alexander Calder.

Mr. Judah presents his photographs in pairs, often to good effect when colour schemes or compositions are complementary, as in the juxtaposition of Dandelion and Thistle on Plate 45 or Croton and Coleus on Plate 38.

Sometimes the juxtapositions are inspired, as with Palm and Nasturtium (improbable as that may sound!) on Plate 35. Sometimes, however, the juxtapositions seem to occur merely because the format of the book demands it.

It will have escaped no one that this is as near to a rave review as I am ever likely to write. This is a coffee table sized book without a coffee table sized price (?25 in the UK which at present exchange rates translates to about $45). It is worth every penny and then some. It will provide almost anyone many years of future delight.

Added to that, the launch at the National Gallery on Friday will benefit P.A.L.S.

It is hard to imagine a more rewarding way to support so worthy a cause.