Flora Photographica

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, flowers have always featured prominently.

Today, flower photography remains in full bloom, with photographers worldwide 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.