Afraid of the Police

“Poor flowers in the flower beds of manicured gardens.
They look like they’re afraid of the police.”

Which is from a poem by Fernando Pessoa in the book A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe.

Flowers mean many things in these poems. In another he says,

“If sometimes I say that flowers smile
And if I should say that rivers sing,
It’s not because I think there are smiles in flowers
And songs in the rivers’ flowing…
It’s so I can help misguided men
Feel the true real existence of flowers and rivers.”

In another Pessoa poem:

“How sad not to know how to blossom!”

I’m trying to learn about photographing flowers and there’s a lot to it. I already know that when I look back at these photos in 6 months I’ll see all the mistakes. I’ll be better. I hope I will.

I want to photograph flowers in a way that makes them look unafraid of the police. I want an unruliness, disorder. But I also want flowers that smile, that blossom, that help me understand my own existence.

I have no idea what I’m doing.

I only know that one must begin.