Layers – A Collection of Floral-Inspired Portraits Celebrating the Stages of a Woman’s Life

I hope you had a lovely weekend. Today, I’d like to share with you floral-inspired photographs from ‘Layers’ – a collection of photographic portraits celebrating the stages of a woman’s life.

They’re the result of a collaboration between florist Jo Wise, make-up artist Jade Soar and photographer Asiko. Jo contacted me recently and kindly gave me some background about the images :

Women from various backgrounds – aged between 19 and 90 years – were photographed in front of an evolving flower wall during a three-week period. Layers of freshly picked British flowers were added to the wall as the project progressed. The added layers represent the growth and depth of wisdom women gain as life progresses.

The Flowers 

I love the idea of using garden flowers as an artist medium. To me, flowers are nature’s paintbox – their fleeting beauty, that makes way for new growth, has always captured my imagination. These qualities inspired me to create the flower wall for ‘Layers’. I wanted the backdrop to the portraits to change over time, with some elements fading, allowing new layers to be added. The wall portrays our connection to nature, the passing of time and growth.

I wanted the flowers to be 100% British and I was lucky enough to hand pick every flower used in the wall. The flowers came from two cutting gardens within 10 miles of my studio. Bosley Patch in Henley-on-Thames is a cutting garden run by Tamsin Borlase and Babylon Flowers in Watlington run by Juliet Bennett. Two phenomenal women who grow wonderful flowers for florists. When I told them of the project, they immediately invited me to their cutting gardens and allowed me to walk through the borders cutting flowers as I went. Pure joy and a huge thanks to them for all their support with the project.

We shot ‘Layers’ from the first week of October, while the gardens were still fairly abundant to the first week of November, by which time the flowers were nearly all gone. We’d timed it for then, so we could reflect that change in the flower wall. There was something quite romantic about that. We were celebrating the garden’s last hurrah in a way. The women however were all very much full of life, especially the older ladies. The set came alive when we photographed them. There was something about their poise, grace, pride and confidence that really embodied what this project was all about.

If you’d like to see the photographs, below are details of where they’ll be on display. And if you’d like to read more about ‘Layers’, simply pop over to Jo’s website.

EXHIBITION DATES

From 8 March 2016 – ‘Layers’ portraits
Southbank Centre
Member’s Area, Floor 6,
Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XX

12 March 2016 – ‘Layers’ live portrait & floral display
Women’s Equality 1st Birthday Party
Festival Hall, Southbank Centre
Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XX

15 – 29 April 2016 – ‘Layers’ portraits
Winter Pride Art Awards 2016
Islington Arts Factory
2 Parkhurst Rd, London N7 0SF

(Copyright: Asiko/Wise/Soar | Images : Asiko)