Pixiq

Flora Photographica: Masterpieces of Flower Photography from 1835 to the Present (Thames & Hudson 1991) is a book I refer to repeatedly when teaching. This hefty volume embraces both artistic and scientific approaches to flower photography – from simple portraits outdoors and inside, posies in vases and nudes festooned with flowers to photograms, cyanotypes and radiographs. Amongst the many featured flowers, there is one that keeps recurring: the aesthetic calla or arum lily is reproduced no less than 19 times, selected by 15 photographers including, (unsurprisingly) Robert Mapplethorpe.

The Romans cultivated calla lilies and planted them beside the entrance to their homes, where they bloomed during the winter solstice, adding light during the shortest and darkest days of the year. After calla lilies were imported to the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century, they became popular subjects for both artists and photographers. By the 1920s and 1930s, Edward Weston, Man Ray and Ansel Adams had all been seduced by them.

The popularity of this flower, which appeals to so many photographers as well as artists (it was a particular favorite of Georgia O'Keeffe) only increased after Sigmund Freud highlighted its sexual symbolism. The large curvaceous trumpet surrounds the central phallic-looking spadix like a living sculpture. The intriguing asymmetric bloom offers many possible viewpoints and the waxy matt surface gives no reflections with a direct light source; yet the internal structure of the rigid white trumpet makes it possible to reveal the fine linear greenish streaks beneath the trumpet with backlighting.

Calla lilies originate from South Africa, where they used to grow like weeds beside streams and ditches, or in wet ground. As the land became drained, so they disappeared from some spots and they are now not nearly so prolific as they used to be, but nonetheless are easy to spot when driving. Whilst working in the Cape early in September 2010, I stopped repeatedly to take them and on my last day I came across a group of kids picking them to sell beside the road.

In the West, the calla lily was for long regarded as a funereal flower and so was not popular in floral arrangements within the home, but now that floral wreaths are often colorful ensembles, this stigma has gone and traditional white callas are once again selected by some brides.

Now that callas are also available from florists in a variety of colors including yellow, orange, pink, green and virtually black, they will, no doubt, continue to inspire artists to create memorable images of this beguiling flower, which, in fact, is not a true lily at all.