Irises

I de-petaled these irises before I photographed them. I like to think of this as floral sculpting, but I wonder if the flowers agree. They’re already cut, so probably.

It seems possible though that one day, when we have a more refined sense of floral equality, this sort of activity will be considered unseemly. Maybe all the flower models will stand up and start saying no. Maybe they’ll tell me I’m being insensitive. But for now, as far as I can tell, they’re happy to participate in my floral creativity.

I removed the side petals from these irises because I love the three that stand up from the top. They’re so graceful and fun, but they’re harder to pay attention to when the flowers are fully petaled. My other more obvious goal for these images was to show off the contrasting purple and yellow petal without a lot of extra fuss.

It turns out there is a little tunnel between the purple/yellow petal and the one that sticks up just above it. This is where the pollen is hidden. I discovered this when I started the deconstruction. Flowers are so cleverly designed.

I like the way these turned out. They remind me of ballerinas—three-armed ballerinas, but still.