Fleur Olby is a still life photographer, she started her career in 1993 in London. Olby studied at Central Saint Martins in London, the University of Brighton and Bradford College. She produces plant portraits showing “detail, essence, form” and has a contemporary style. Fleur Olby's work shows careful composition to show off certain qualities of the plants in each portrait.
This photo shows some pieces of grass, some of which are transparent; showing the grass behind. She has used a light box to achieve this, in addition, the light from behind has shown the veins of the grass, which adds to the detail of the portrait, and as a result making the photograph much more fascinating to look at. The composition is clever in the way that she as used multiple pieces and layered them, showing off their varying colours and sizes.
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This photo however, is a portrait of a flower, a saffron, it shows the petals and its incredible detail and colour. Olby has positioned the petals carefully to make sure all the detail is seen and to present the petals in a composition in an odd number of three, is much more appealing than just two.
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This portrait is of two rose stalks with all their thorns. This is something that isn't necessarily exciting to look at, yet the black background forces you to focus on the stalks. This simple composition of two stalks somehow works because of the amount of thorns on each one, it looks busy. It is also very satisfying to see the stalks in a parallel and vertical position, which Fleur Olby has done on purpose to draw attention to this portrait.
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In this photo, Olby has photographed in black and white some strands of grass. The portrait is grainy and seems to be a negative, as the black and white colours have been inverted, Fleur Olby has done this for effect to draw attention to a portrait that is just grass and would otherwise be pointless to look at. Olby has positioned the grass so that the bends do in a diagonal line, this again adds some purpose to the portrait.
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I like Fleur Olby's work as it is modern and she focuses on the detail of the plants in their simplest form, highlighting their colours and shapes. She thinks about the composition very carefully and it is clearly shown in these portraits.