Silver in Nature/Flowers / 2026 / Nature / Flowers

• Prize
  Silver in Nature/Flowers
• Photographer
  Sung Joon Kim, Korea, Republic of
• Date of Photograph
  vary

Oriental orchid is one of the hardest flowers to photograph. The flower you behold in full bloom and the flower you meet in the image feel like two entirely different things. The color and texture of an Oriental orchid resist the lens; the beauty the eye takes in is seldom the beauty the photograph keeps.


As the flower withers, I photograph its death, sighing that I have failed again. Yet the dying orchid - as if reluctant to part with the life - grants me the pose more honestly, more graciously, than it ever did in full bloom.I photograph these dying flowers in a spirit of consolation.