Azalea
  • Sunflower
  • A flower

«Initially this photo series was to be titled “Flowers in a Vase,” as I had decided to photograph them in different antique vases. The project was inspired by the wild flowers my wife often gathered to decorate our apartment.

I was not entirely satisfied with the first photos I took in our home. Somehow they were too stiff. I don’t like the overly artificial feeling of floral arrangements such as Ikebana. For the most part, I admire natural bouquets such as Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflowers, which I admit have moved and inspired me.

And that is how I too decided to present and portray these flowers, by working in my photography studio. I created a background resembling an old wall, added a table that was worn and shiny with age, and set the camera on a tripod.

My studio backs up to a mountain where a multitude of flowers bloom in the spring and are replaced by others as the seasons pass. Every day I began to pick flowers from the fields and also from my little garden and I created bouquets and placed them as they were in a water filled vase.

I then waited patiently for the perfect moment to photograph, capture and save the image, the moment of infinite grace and absolute beauty before these short lives were forever lost. I wanted to catch the voluptuousness of falling petals, the emotion of opening buds and the power of roots forming at the bottom of stems.

This photo series is an ode to the plant kingdom and celebrates the simple, natural beauty of flowers placed without artifice in a vase to live only a few days. My photos grant them eternal life.»