Vivid bold spectacular and unexpected: a definitive overview of one of contemporary
photography's most innovative fields showcasing flower imagery by more than 120 of the world's
leading practitioners. There has never been a period in photography's long history - no school
no movement - when flowers have not been a central focus whether in the form of the classic
still life the botanical study incorporated into portraiture and studies of the human body
documented in street photography or used subversively in surrealist collage and montage. Today
flower photography remains in full bloom with photographers the world over depicting flowers
and floral motifs in novel ways. Featuring works by more than 120 photographers Flora
Photographica links the very best of flower photography from the past thirty years with its
predecessors - canonical floral studies from the realms of photography botanical illustration
drawing and painting that have marked the collective imagination for centuries if not
millennia. Works by contemporary photographers such as Cindy Sherman Thomas Ruff Vik Muniz
Valérie Belin Viviane Sassen and Martin Schoeller appear across nine thematic chapters
complemented by two in-depth essays by curators William A. Ewing and Danaé Panchaud exploring
the relationship between contemporary works and the rich traditions of floral art and
photography.
