A visual deconstruction of the favourite flowers of a florist, interwoven with a bit of botany and a sprinkling of autobiography.
Robbie Honey is hard to categorise. A background in horticulture, in garden and interior design, floristry and perfume-creation have all been driven and inspired by his love of plants. Every gardener knows that looking closely at flowers, carefully analysing their structure, brings unexpected insights, and it is these that Honey shares in his book.
He has taken some of his favourite flowers from around the world, disassembled their constituent parts and photographed them. The result is a collection of beautiful, often intriguing, images. He points out that his deconstructions are neither academic nor complete representations of each flower but rather what he considers the subject’s most beautiful attributes.
His technique is to take the flower apart and lay out its parts in an aesthetically pleasing way. The style of the layouts of the specimens are painterly. While the lines are strong, it is colour and texture that are favoured, with the result that some plates look as if they have been painted. In fact, surprisingly, the images were taken on an iPhone using natural light.
The book is also part autobiography and, as well as an introduction that recounts the story of a journey that began in rural Zimbabwe, he weaves anecdotes about his life throughout the book. Alongside most plant plates there is a brief story about where he found the plant or his relationship with it. Honey also gives a brief description of each plant, its distribution, uses and history.
This book is not, as the blurb claims, botany ‘transformed for a modern audience’. It is a gentle meander, looking at captivating flowers in the company of someone with a passion for flowers and plants, an eye for beauty and who has interesting stories to tell along the way.