Danaé Panchaud – författare

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.

'An outstanding new book that looks at how birds have been a major inspiration for contemporary artists over the years' Professional Photo A thought-provoking overview of contemporary bird photography, featuring the work of more than 50 internationally recognized photographers in an enthralling odyssey that both captures the splendour of birds and highlights the complex relationship between humans and animals Photographs of birds feature rarely in the early decades of photography: birds were too fast to be captured in flight, and could not be depicted in colour, issues that took many years to rectify. Today, however, with superb technical means at their disposal, photographers have taken to the subject with great enthusiasm, inspired by our ever-increasing understanding and appreciation of avian complexity. Aviary features the work of more than fifty internationally recognized photographers who explore our relationship with birds, questioning how we observe them and respond to their presence – and vice versa. Taking an eclectic curatorial approach, Danaé Panchaud and William A. Ewing weave together photography from the diverse fields of art, documentary, fashion, portraiture, ornithology and wildlife photography, proposing intriguing new dialogues and visual theatre between these different modes of photographic expression. Rather than being organized by field of study or species, Aviary surveys the symbiotic relationship between animals and humans through six thematic chapters imagined as ‘acts’ in a theatrical pageant. Both a visual celebration of the wonders of nature and a stark reminder of its fragility, Aviary presents a compelling portrait of our relationship with birds through the work of contemporary photographers such as Leila Jeffreys, Sarah Moon, Roger Ballen, Charles Fréger, Vik Muniz, Tim Flach, Viviane Sassen, Robert Clark and Nadav Kander, among many others.