Flora

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Fashion photographer Nick Knight shows his love for the pressed flower and plant collection of the Museum of Natural History of London in Flora. Each specimen is carefully chosen and photographed. Deciding between beautiful plants was quite a task for Knight: "The herbarium ... contains over six million samples. It has taken over three and a half years to discover plants for this book. Thousands were taken out for consideration.... I would look forward to each day of searching enormously." The 46 full-color plates pop so vividly from the white backgrounds that it's almost as if there were actual pressed flowers between the pages. The specimens are graceful, geometric, twisted, or spindly with colorful petals, leaves, and seeds. In their flattened arrangements, they look otherworldly, like sea creatures or insects frozen in time. The book includes a detailed commentary of the various flora and fauna written by botanical curator Sandra Knapp. She offers great information, including the history and human uses of the various flowers and plants along with the relationships between different plant species. There is a real energy to her descriptions--the flora become a cast of characters, each with personality and fascinating quirks that only nature can provide.


From Booklist
In this visually stunning portfolio, avant-garde fashion photographer Knight segues effortlessly to chronicler of pressed plant material. An impressive selection process, with Knight looking over millions of plants and flowers at London's Natural History Museum's herbarium, led to the culling of a few dozen specimens. In the end Knight's camera captures exhilarating qualities of brilliant translucency and sensational graphic structure as he depicts the beautiful bracts of the silver tree, the myriad patterns of seaweed, or the searing hue and suggestive form of the orchid Dracula roezlii. These captivating images provoke a desire for further study, and, thankfully, museum curator Knapp provides fascinating commentary. After explaining the purpose of maintaining a library of pressed plants, Knapp offers revelatory background on plant hunters and explorers, along with aspects of scientific and cultural contexts for each exquisite botanical specimen. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Celebrated photographer Nick Knight gives us a new view of flowers and plants in this dazzling volume. Astounded by the beauty of the pressed flowers and plants he saw at the herbarium of the Natural History Museum in London, Knight spent three and a half years choosing from among the museum’s six million specimens. Having selected 46 as the most visually arresting, he captures them here with his camera in a book as fresh as the greatest works of botanical art and illustration.Engaging commentaries by curator Sandra Knapp describe Knight’s choices. In his preface, Knight marvels at the variety of forms and hues: “Some were like feathers of neon, breathtakingly delicate. . . others were like urban plans, architecturally precise . . . many were joyful splashes of color like children’s paintings, carefree, happy nonsense.” In Flora, the loveliness of the pressed plants and flowers, the graphic quality of the photographs, the elegance of the design, and the vividness of the color reproductions yield a sublime and stunning ensemble.


About the Author
Nick Knight rose to prominence with his daring fashion photography and advertising campaigns. His widely admired photo-graphic celebration (in collaboration with fashion designer Alexander McQueen) of people with physical disabilities for the English magazine Dazed & Confused and his images of the rock star Björk for the CD Homogenic have focused new attention on this important British photographer. Sandra Knapp is curator in the Department of Botany at the Natural History Museum, London. Peter Saville has designed numerous record and CD covers, worked for the Pompidou Center, was house designer for the Whitechapel Gallery, and has provided design and art direction for various fashion houses and music companies.


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