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Sunday, June 07, 2026

Perfectly Asymmetrical

Pam & top left Hosta 'Polka Dot Bikini' - Hosta 'Snake Eyes' & Hosta 'Strip Tease'

 In quite a few blogs I have written of my love for asymmetry. Some years ago I had the good fortune to know a model called Pam when I was teaching at Focal Point on 10th Ave. To my delight she told me that she had been born minus an arm and one of her legs was longer. In her late teens the long leg was shortened.  The result was an asymmetrical body. I wrote about it for a photographic web page called Zone Zero that was the idea of a Mexican photographer called Pedro Meyer.

Zone Zero

A few days ago I noticed a hosta called “Polka Dot Bikini” that not only had asymmetrical patterned leaves but one leaf in particular grabbed my attention.

As a former member (I quit last year) of the American Hosta Society when I went to conventions, judges avoided giving prizes for hosta with asymmetry. And yet one of the first hostas to feature it is a well-known Hosta ‘Strip Tease’.

Today I decided to feature three hosta leaves with a photograph that I took of Pam that shows the wonders of her body,

I have mentioned many times how tourists who flock to Mexico often write or mention how in markets the piles of fruit and vegetables are perfectly symmetrical.   

I believe that an appreciation of asymmetry is the next step in civilization. As far as I know one of the few asymmetrical cars was Rambler that had a passenger door that was larger. There is no real reason why car fronts have to be perfectly the same on one side as the other. 

Many of my 35mm Nikons and particular my excellent FM-2 are perfectly asymmetrical. I wonder why designers went that route.



Most of my portraits are not the same on one side as on the other. In my landscapes I never place the horizon in the middle.

Is asymmetry in human evolution?   


I could not resist so I addeda most asymetric Rosa 'Zepherine Druhin'