In a moment of utter darkness it was photography which gave me light. Through the ever evolving exposures that I started to create , I rescued myself from an ever deeper obscurity. Years down this journey I found Orchids, or actually re found Orchids, as they never really ceased to be there. The fascination with employing them as subjects was almost instant yet still ever incremental. What started as a spontaneous still life study became a long term project and even an obsession. Nowadays, years after having made my first studies, when the creativity feels blocked I find refuge in photographing them, aiming to capture at least a fragment of their ever changing forms. In my eyes they are never dull, as they are always different, fluent and fleeting.
With the passing of time, I started acquiring more and more of them, soon all the window sills were being filled with this strange parasitic flowers. White, blue, pink even purple ones as well as combinations of the aforementioned started to blossom my apartment in St. Gallen. That year the snow fell almost furiously from the sky onto the skeletons of the trees which had lost all their foliage, yet my orchids simply kept blooming winter long. It was a small piece of rainforest in a frozen world to which I was so deeply foreign. As the quarantine went on that winter and the few clients of our young photo agency struggled for survival, the orchids remained a constant reminder of the cyclical nature of life. A lasting appeasement in the turmoil of uncertainty. A reminder that even after everything seems long dead a spark of life can re appear at anytime.
As they became a larger part of my photographical practice I began drawing more and more connections between them and photography itself. The parallels are undeniable: How sensible and dependant they are on light, how like a photograph itself never two of them are the same (at least in the natural world, comparable to photographing outside the studio). Or even how shape and color and the absence thereof define their personality and character. Nonetheless, what fascinated me the most was truly their ability to come back after being totally gone, when they no longer possess a single flower, their most important attribute, they return, often stronger, larger and more beautiful than ever before.
After shooting hundred of these images in many forms of different light, angles , in analog and digital formats and with distinctive intents and perspectives I have decided for these 7 images. As a main point I have opted for making monochromatic images. This is because after profound contemplation I have determined it is more sensible to dedicate one introductory photo chronicle to the mere appreciation of their form, the black and white nature of this images attests to this purpose.
In what concerns their form, it lies in line with their unpredictability and for me is undoubtedly one of the strongest elements of their appeal. It is in fact a miracle of evolution. Orchids have changed over millenial to mimic the form of their predators, desto their similarities with a large flying insect or small bird. Another of the fascinating angles of these parasitic beings. As if that was not interesting enough there are thousands of subspecies of orchids some are extremely rare and can be found only deep in the everglades or the Amazon rainforest. One might take an entire lifetime before truly admiring their enormous diversity within their own kind. Fortunately I have my cameras as as an also ever evolving tool to persevere in my journey to document them.