Botanicals

by chloewoodphotography

This project was originally inspired by botanical illustration. I began taking simple images of flowers at different stages of growth that I would display as triptychs, but as the project developed I got more obsessed by my subject and it developed into a more personal journey through my exploration. My final piece was a large A3 book, it began with documentary images of the plants as they grew throughout my home and progressed to images of dissections that I made and arranged. My book ends with the final presentation of the flowers as sets of triptychs. This is the piece of text that introduces my book:

I have always had a love of plants and the natural world. As a child I was forever collecting treasures on family walks; leaves, feathers, petals, seed pods, twigs, pebbles, whatever had caught my eye or was new. I developed a fascination in how things worked, starting with the plants I had found; learning that all plants are made up of the same essential elements but each of these can come in different forms and colours.

Taking inspiration from the many old books of botanical illustrations in my home, I set about photographing some of my favourite spring flowers. This book is a document of my journey through this work; allowing the plants to grow, flower, and die all around my home.

I dissected the flowers, comparing different forms, trying to understand the biological benefits of the layout, and then using the beautiful disassembled flowers I created new images which feature in my work.

My book ends with the final presentation of the flowers in a series of triptychs. I cut the best flowers early to photograph them closed or in bud, keeping them alive so I could capture them at different stages of the flower development. Accompanied by their latin name they finish my work and lead me toward summer.