Flower Power - photographical documentary project
442 views · Published 31 January 2012 · 4:39 · Indexed 24 October 2026
Channel: Borut Peterlin · 2012 · Entertainment
More about it on my blog: http://wp.me/p1EuY-1Dk Photographical documentary project on press conferences entitled Flower Power. As a photojournalist for the weekly Mladina I have been daily photographing press conferences, politicians' handshakes, and other "flash for cash" photo opportunities. At a certain point I became frustrated with these news-safaris, where the press officer in charge determines my and other photographers' view angle, the timing and the expression of the politician(s). Searching for an approach that would motivate me personally, I decided to document the flower arrangements accompanying such public functions. At every event I thus also take a personal picture in addition to the usual news images, a picture that is out of the pre-set context. Instead of glorifying some important politician, it sets flowers in focus, thus degrading the politician to unsharp background that distracts the composition. The cure works perfectly and now I look forward to every press conference, no matter how trivial it is. I have been working on this project for over six years now. With my Flower Power bouquets I have captured also world leaders, such as George Bush, Ban Ki-moon, Romano Prodi, Angela Merkel, DalajLama, Vladimir Putin and others. Let me quote Marcel Štefančič who commented the series: "A hundred years from now no one will know who these politicians were, what their names were, but everyone will still know what these flowers are called. That's it -- Flower Power."
