Forgotten Flowers by Broccoli A Collection of Found Floral Photography (2023)
Forgotten Flowers: A Collection of Found Floral Photography (2023) is a short book curated by Anja Charbonneau, Alice May Du, and Stephanie Madewell, made up of polaroids, 35mm frames and maybe a few digital shots of flowers, flower arrangements, and the people who love (or just happen to be near) those flowers. I love archival and found photograph projects because they can be spun into little narratives through sequencing and juxtaposition that would never have occurred had these photos not been joined together in one book.
Published in 2023 by Broccoli, most of the photographs included have faded or aged, turning slightly brown or yellow. Some photos have the featured flowers as the main subject, others it’s the people or pets that get the focus. This is made evident early on with the second spread (on pages 8 and 9); two photos of the same living room with a bouquet on the table - flowers in the foreground of the first picture in more focus than the woman sitting behind it, and in the second the woman’s on the phone in focus in the background with the flowers out of focus in front. The flowers-as-centerpiece aesthetic continues with beautifully sequenced pairings that emphasize color and texture while oscillating between close-up details and wider environments. Pages 12-13 start with a deep close-up of green leaves and sparse red flowers with a cat perched in the center followed by a woman in a green shirt gently smelling a single pink flower. Pages 16-17 start with two older men sitting in white plastic chairs on a porch surrounded by red and green flowers followed by a darkly lit patio with two empty white iron benches and a big white flower pot in the foreground. Pages 40-41 show the details of white petals and yellow-orange pollen followed by a photo of a bride in a white gown kneeling next to her flower girls dressed in yellow. It’s a very clear design choice that works so effortlessly and effectively to move the viewer through the collection. I love pausing on the details that then open up showing a full scene that could have taken place many years and many miles apart.
The other main thematic takeaway is the prominence of the domestic space. The photographs in this book were taken by family members, friends, and somewhat amateur photographers. The locations and situations are all in the home or the garden or at some specific life ritual. The lone image on pages 64-65 shows a couple, presumably on their wedding day standing under a flower arch, on page 70 is an older woman mourning her husband with a vase of roses placed next to his black and white portrait atop an old TV set. The intimacy is felt in these images in a way that could never be achieved by a professional photographer on assignment to find the best looking flowers held by the most interesting people. These flowers are beautiful and these people (and cats) are interesting because they’re real! And the temporal gap between when these photos were captured and when the book was published gives them even more importance as an emblem or icon or a time gone by. This book is nostalgia plus typography plus community all at once, even if there’s only one person in the photo at a time.
