FLORA: ELEGANCE AND SYMBOLISM
March 13, 2022 - April 03, 2022
“After women, flowers are the most lovely thing God has given the world”
Inspired by the turn towards spring, the lengthening of the days, and the symbolic power of nature and its flora, this exhibition takes focus on the abundance of flowers in fashion photography and the complexity of emotions and atmospheres each petal and stem can be used to convey.
Flowers are one of the most well known decorative symbols in art, universally recognised and appreciated for their beauty. As extremely emotive elements of nature, flowers can evoke a wide understanding of feelings from both love and grief. The portrayal of flowers in art often come to symbolise varied and even oppositional abstract concepts such birth and decay, purity and excess, and natural or idealistic beauty.
This exhibition includes the spirited works of Emmanuelle Hauguel that celebrate flowers in fashion photography with a playful and flirtatious spark, in contrast to the painterly and understated works of Robert Farber. Featured also are the images of Richard Phibbs and Greg Lotus which evoke flora in an elevated and graceful manner, applying the classic beauty of flowers in harmony with fashion photography. The works of Chiron Duong on display take on his classic reflective and poetic style as the flowers in his pictures take on a metaphoric meaning in an act of storytelling.
