Tasker’s dream-like images of lilies, irises, callas, wisteria, lotus and columbine blooms are the work of an inspired amateur. Born in 1872 in Beloit, Wisconsin, Tasker was a doctor in Los Angeles, head radiologist at Wilshire Hospital when radiology was in its infancy. In 1920 Tasker began to work with pictorial photography, creating conventional landscapes and artistic portraits. In 1930, at the age of 58, inspired by an x-ray photograph of an amaryllis taken by a physicist friend in Los Angeles, he started using x rays to photograph flowers. In “X-ray Goes Pictorial” (Popular Photography, March 1942) Tasker explains that: “There is nothing particularly difficult about x-raying flowers” if a photographer has access to a radiology lab; it requires “tireless patience” and knowledge “of flowers and their habits”…. “alternating periods of discouragement, hope and pleasure are inevitable”.
Tasker’s dream-like images of lilies, irises, callas, wisteria, lotus and columbine blooms are the work of an inspired amateur. Born in 1872 in Beloit, Wisconsin, Tasker was a doctor in Los Angeles, head radiologist at Wilshire Hospital when radiology was in its infancy. In 1920 Tasker began to work with pictorial photography, creating conventional landscapes and artistic portraits. In 1930, at the age of 58, inspired by an x-ray photograph of an amaryllis taken by a physicist friend in Los Angeles, he started using x rays to photograph flowers. In “X-ray Goes Pictorial” (Popular Photography, March 1942) Tasker explains that: “There is nothing particularly difficult about x-raying flowers” if a photographer has access to a radiology lab; it requires “tireless patience” and knowledge “of flowers and their habits”…. “alternating periods of discouragement, hope and pleasure are inevitable”.