Photographer Kathryn Martin started working with wildflowers when she lived in London. Inspired by the copperplate engravings in 18th-century botanist William Curtis’s eight-volume Flora Londinensis, she digitally photographs native wildflowers against graph paper. The idea developed when she moved to the South Downs and collected flowers on her daily walks as a way to connect with the landscape. The resultant exhibition – called Come, See Real Flowers of this Painful World, after a haiku by Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō – is on show at London design shop Egg. “Wildflower habitats are in sharp decline, but are a vital source of food and shelter for countless species,” Martin says. “I want my photographs to show how beautiful these plants are, to encourage people to notice them, and perhaps even sow their own patch.”
