Pornosynthesis: Revealing the Sensual Side of Flowers

Catherine Losing and Robert Graves-Morris reveal a side of flowers you have never seen before in their sensual series cleverly titled Pornosynthesis.

The project is a visual journey into the sexuality of plants, giving us a close-up view of the inside parts of flowers. Influenced by vintage 70’s pornography magazines and driven by their passion and concern for bee populations and environmental issues, Losing and Graves-Morris combine their creativity and vision to form stunning glamour shots of lush flora.

Each plant is glazed to the point of dripping, exuding a sexuality that we would normally never think to attribute to a plant.

When asked about how they achieved this glossy, dewy effect, Losing said that she loves to “use light to add texture and form to still life subjects. We also used a fair bit of a still life staple—glycerine—to add some juices.”

In their project, the two artists create hazy and seductive auras that glow like a luminous mist around the subject. The viewer is brought into extreme close range of the flower stem, giving it an appearance that is almost hyper-real, or perhaps otherworldly, making these plants seem unfamiliar and at times exotic.

The element of the flower that Pornosynthesis puts on a pedestal is not the traditional bloom and pedals, but rather part of the plant responsible for reproduction. Through this, the project draws our attention to pollen and the pollinators: bees, whose populations are in rapid decline.

All of the proceeds of the book benefit this cause.

When discussing the idea behind the project, Losing explains,

“Robert is passionate about the great outdoors and introduced me to The Bee Cause. Friends of the Earth launched the initiative to try and tackle the decline in the UK bee population. With that in mind Robert created these amazing models of different species of plants and their reproductive systems. All of which evolved specifically, so pollinators such as bees are attracted to them. We liked the idea of helping the bees by creating a tongue-in-cheek version of a porn mag for them! All proceeds from the book are being donated to the charity.”

In addition to Pornosynthesis, Catherine Losing also works on commercial projects, which is where she met her collaborator Robert Graves-Morris. Her work can be found in places like Riposte Magazine, British Vogue, and Wired.

All proceeds from the book are being donated to the charity. Find it here.

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