Wiebke Rost

Nostalgic St. John’s Wort, Echtes Johanniskraut (Hypericum perforatum)

Been out on a little herb search today, gathered seeds and foliage and photographed whatever caught my attention… The flowers of the St. John’s Wort were moving in the wind just the moment I released the shutter, leaving a shining signature on the image. The herb used to be hung above religious images on St. John’s to keep evil away from the home. Hence the name Hypericum, from Greek hyper =above and eikon =image.

During the past months (or actually years) I have been photographing a lot of different herbs, flowers, plants and trees, in various aspects, different weather conditions, in their wholeness as well as dissecting details from root to stem to foliage to flower and fruit. A selection of these photos is online at my Photography site wr-photography.com and in addition I regularly post new photos to Facebook, Pinterest, tumblr and Deviantart as well as Behance.

Seeking out, identifying and observing flowers, plants and trees through the camera, close-up as well as within their surrounding, is a way of learning, discovering, documenting and lastly also transmitting various aesthetically pleasing as well as repulsive aspects and sometimes also the visible effects of human interference with nature’s kingdom plantae. This branch of photography plays also a big roll for the Teufelskunst project where at least 50% of all time and work are dedicated to the gnosis of the green. Naturally, it is also a huge inspiration for my visual art, with contents not seldom being codified in and transported through abstract and/or symbolical linear floral forms (my own floriography or ‘language of flowers’).

Depending on the situation, mood and context you will find crisp, natural, slightly or heavily edited images in my plant photography. Some images play with motion blur and focus, others with color and contrast etc.

Below is a selection of some of my favorite recent and past nature shots:

Black Dhatura

Giant Aberrant Foxglove Flower (Pseudo-Peloria)

Her Fruit III (Scopolia carniolica)

Spring Impressions 2013:

Apple Blossoms

Bee on Cuckoo Flowers

Tulip Drops

Belladonna Sprouts

Trees:

Old Linden Alley, Dresden Friedrichstadt

Beech

Beeches and Ginkgo, Strasbourg

Tentacle Tree, Lilienstein

Traces

The Old Hag

Willow Bark

House

Beith

The Bleeding Tree

Black Poplar of Babisnau

Twogether

Autumn Trees, 2005

A series on Poisonous Flowers and their Pollinators:

Nightflight

Bumblebee, gathering nectar from a Wolfsbane Flower

Bumblebee crawling into a Belladonna Flower

How things got started:

Bilsenkraut Erntezyklus, 2010

Bumblebee on Henbane Flower

Listen to the Silence

To be continued…

Tags: flowers, herbalism, macro & close-up, nature, scenery, trees, walks