Series - FotoSlovo 2026 - Category « Still Life »

All the photos are of my floral arrangements, with chrysanthemums as the focus. I tried many ways to arrange the different flower positions. From the very beginning, I had this dreamy, colourful image floating around in my head, I wanted to capture flowers like they were from another world. And I think I really pulled it off.

When I used flash while shooting, and there was one moment that really struck me: the instant the flash went off, the petals seemed to curl ever so slightly. The winter wind cuts right through you, but the chrysanthemums are still there, holding their ground, petals curled tight against the cold, blooming anyway. Watching them, so delicate yet so stubborn side by side, honestly, it hit me. That's kind of how we humans are too, isn't it? No matter what situation life throws us into, if we're determined enough, we can always carve out our own little corner to blossom.

A society impatient with grief becomes cruel. A society impatient with uncertainty becomes dogmatic. A society impatient with other people’s interior lives becomes quick to moralise and slow to understand. Against that, close looking becomes a practice rather than a pastime.