RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show 2026 (1) PHOTOGRAPHY


Using this blog as a research sketchbook, here are some photos I took from the RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show 2026. My favourite work was Louise Sayers's. I was also touched by the words of some artists as they echoed with my own experiences and feelings from working with plants. I found Denise Bernon's work very Victorian in a macabre and dry scientific way. Corine Whitehouse's reminded me of my own interest for glasshouses, even though I am more interested in the artificiality and somehow in the selfishness of wanting to keep plants that without heating and watering wouldn't survive in our climate.

EMILIJA PETRAUSKIENĖ

Tulipa 'Libretto Parrot' 2025 Wet plate collodion negative, Gelatin silver print, Selenium toned


LIBBY ELLIS

"(...) I meet flowers where they live, growing in the garden, and find that communing with them in season and place deepens the intimacy of their portraits. (...) "

Chrysanthemum 'Lava' #8399 2025 Archival Pigment Print



CORINNE WHITEHOUSE

"My interest in glasshouses is part of a wider fascination with curated realities that recreate the exotic in a local space. I am interested in their role as places to conserve rare and endangered plants that may be struggling to survive in native environments because of climate change and man-made threats to habitats. Shot on 35mm black and white film and printed in the darkroom using environmentally friendly practices, these images were taken at RHS Garden Wisley, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Cambridge University Botanic Garden glasshouses."

The Glasshouse #2 2025 Gelatin silver print

The Glasshouse #1 2024 Gelatin silver print

HEIDI EGERMAN

Follicle Dehiscing Asclepias syriaca 2025 Fine Art Print


MARIANNE MAJERUS

"These intimate portraits highlight the beauty of fleeting moments in the life of plants. The final stages in a cycle before the plants fade from view and return to the earth with quiet grace and a promise of renewal. From season to season, gardens evolve as the plants grow, flourish and set seed for the future. Spending time with plants, recording both their beauty and their energy, confirms they are deserving of this careful observation and inspection, showing the constant flux and transformation of nature in the garden. The constant transformation, highlighted in these portraits, is something to be celebrated."

Pulsatilla vulgaris seedhead 2009 Fine Art Giclée Print

DENISE BERNON

"My portfolio is a photographic study of dried flowers and leaves gathered from my garden and the surrounding countryside throughout the year.
Each botanical element has been preserved beyond its natural life cycle and arranged into six compositions that suggest continued movement, structure and harmony. Together they form a garden that lives in memory.
Throughout the seasons, I gathered plants and placed them in a flower press. I selected plants that might naturally grow together and arranged them to evoke the gentle rhythms of growth found in the wild."




LOUISE SAYERS

"I have lived in the remote hills of the Cévennes for nearly twenty years, in a landscape shaped by chestnut forests, rugged gorges and valleys of olive and gorse. I have developed a daily practice of observing and photographing my garden, a space that has evolved slowly and organically, blending into the surrounding hills, where wildflowers, fungi, insects, weeds and planted species coexist in a shifting, living tapestry. The undulating hills encourage an outward gaze, while the tactile presence of grasses and the whispers of leaves and flowers invite introspection and reflection."




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