The Photographer in the Garden (Aperture, $50), co-written by Jamie M. Allen and Sarah Anne McNear, explores how the art of photography adopted the theme of gardens and suggests how the photographer is a kind of gardener seeking the beauty of a perfect composition. The book explains how successful photography incorporates a love of the subject and how black-and-white images shift attention to structures, forms, and textures. The volume displays the work of myriad botanists, sculptors, artists, and photographers as diverse as Anna Atkins, the first botanist/photographer to publish a book with photographic images; Karl Blossfeldt, an artist and photographer inspired by nature and the ways in which plants grow; and Edward Steichen, who famously said that he “knew that trees and plants have roots, stems and branches [and] reach up to the light,” but had to learn “that the magician was the light itself.” This elegant and radiant book is a noteworthy gift for the art and nature lover.