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Flowers are a perennially popular motif throughout art history. And for good reason: Lush with texture and color, a living bouquet of blooms can be made to communicate much through the masterly brushstrokes of Vincent Van Gogh or Georgia O’Keeffe, in the hands of a skilled ikebana artist, or through the lens of contemporary photography.
For more than two decades, Swiss photographer Anna Halm Schudel has focused her eye on flowers, zooming in on calyxes, pistils, and leaf veins to create exuberant feasts of colors. While celebrating the wide variety of shapes and sizes that nature and human cultivation have brought us, Schudel is no less fascinated by the process of decay. As the flowers fade, wilt, and wither, she transforms them under water into images of strange, compelling beauty, combining their delicate beauty with a stirring memento mori. Some ninety strikingly beautiful color plates are complemented by two essays that examine Schudel’s symbolism and put her work in context with the history of the floral still life. As exquisite as the subject itself, this beautifully designed large book is sure to inspire appreciation for this rising Swiss artist.