While the Queens Botanical Garden, a 39-acre urban oasis on Main Street in the heart of Flushing, remains a popular destination for lovers of horticulture, it is by no means the only local spot where one can see landscapes of unusual creativity and beauty, as evidenced by a new photography book and companion exhibition.
In his book “All the Queens Gardens,” architect, artist and Jackson Heights resident Rafael Herrin-Ferri spotlights approximately 100 of the borough’s most alluring yards and gardens, some ostentatiously over-the-top, some created around simple plastic liner pots.
And now, the Voelker Orth Museum, a converted 1890s house located at 149-19 38 Ave. that invites reflection on life in Flushing then and now, presents, through Sept. 27, an exhibition featuring a selection of around two dozen enlarged images from Herrin-Ferri’s book.
The museum provides the ideal setting for the photographs, each personally selected by the lensman, and generously displays them throughout multiple rooms. Herrin-Ferri himself designed the exhibition, which took a couple of days to install, according to Deborah Silverfine, the museum’s executive director.
“This is probably the first time we’ve worked with an architect who has a totally different approach to an exhibit,” Silverfine said. “I am so excited to see how he understood our space and married the exhibition to the house.”
According to Herrin-Ferri, “It was an interesting process. I wanted the photographs to relate to each space in the house. The house is an exhibit, so this is an exhibit in an exhibit.”
Deciding where each of the chosen photographs would be displayed took a great deal of consideration.
“It was based on the room, the spirit, the décor,” Herrin-Ferri said, adding that the photos were picked “to contrast or relate” to each room.
His background “helped with certain aesthetic decisions,” he said. “To make it really feel like an exhibit in a gallery we needed to include all the spaces.”
With that in mind, a photo of a “Chinese American Cooking Pavillion,” taken in Queensboro Hill in 2024, was placed strategically in the sun porch. The “Dr. Seuss Stair Garden” (Auburndale, 2019) settled into the parlor, along with “Shaggy Maple” (Forest Hills, 2024), “Front Yard Boxwood Parterre” (Howard Beach, 2024) and others.
The first library features “Sidewalk Sushi Knots” (Kew Gardens Hills, 2024), while “Yellow Lava Garden” (St. Albans, 2024) adorns the dining room. Even the restroom has been included, featuring “Aqua Checkerboard” (Maspeth, 2023).
“We had a whole new set of large-scale prints for the exhibition,” Silverfine said. “Each print size was designed for the space. And Rafael wanted them to appear to float.”
“Each room becomes like a neighborhood,” Herrin-Ferri said.
The author was born in Barcelona in 1972. In 2013, he began to study the Queens urban vernacular via photography. In 2021, he published “All the Queens Houses,” a selection of some of the borough’s house portraits.
His latest book, through its photographs and text, explores the personal and cultural stories behind the landscapes, reflecting the cultural diversity of the borough.
One of the gardens featured in the book, though not in the exhibit, is just a few doors down from the museum and worth taking a walk to see.
“There are very few urban situations where you can see the types of gardens you see in Queens,” Herrin-Ferri said. “It is something to be treasured.”
“Rafael helps us see how varied and imaginative home gardeners are today,” Silverfine said. “I hope people get inspired to try some gardening on their own.”
The museum is open for tours on Sunday and Wednesday afternoons from 1 to 4 p.m. The suggested donation is $5. For further information, visit vomuseum.org or call (718) 359-6227.