Flowers / Together pt 2 is the second chapter to the photographic duo Metz + Racine’s earlier self-published monograph. Conceived as a series of one-day shoots over the course of three years, Metz + Racine welcomed thirteen new collaborators into their studio, and in turn, together onto the printed page. Whilst for Flowers / Together pt 1 Metz+Racine set out with their closest, longtime collaborators, here, the premise was the promise of the unknown. All previously unacquainted to Metz + Racine, these assembled talents encompass set designers, ceramicists, art buyers and stylists, each approached with the simple proposition of ‘flowers’. Roving from the pastoral to the futuristic, nothing was predetermined – intuition had to be balanced with vision, creative authorship with trust, with the sole guiding principle: the image. The results are as achingly timeless as they are searingly contemporary – from Yasmina Kurunis’s ebullient balloon blooms, to Camilla Wordie’s suspended stems and Jacki Castelli’s floating flowerheads, photographed through a giant water tank. Scarlet Winter presents sculptural arrangements of medicinal plants, complex silhouettes of healing; whilst ceramist Noe Kuremoto and florist Wagner Keutch come together to conjure a whirlwind of planetary orbits through foliage. One peaceful day in the studio was led by designer Alexandra Leavey, who produced a series of ethereal botanical drawings, photographed with wild flowers. Then there was the memorably cold morning on the Hackney marshes, photographing Jess Morgan’s sculptures made from recycled perspex.

Text by Louise Long

Contributors (in order of appearance)

NAT TURNBULL, ALEXANDRA LEAVEY, BENJAMIN KEMPTON, JESS MORGAN, LOUIS GIBSON, SARAH PARKER, SCARLET WINTER, DARYL MCGREGOR, HOLLY HAY, JACKI CASTELLI, CAMILLA WORDIE, NOE KUREMOTO & WAGNER KREUSCH, YASMINA KURUNIS

Retouching by Postroom London