Floral #404

20x24 print on Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl 285g/m paper. Part of a series of floral image photographed in a studio environment

Floral #404 is a botanical composition of dried Goldenrod (Solidago), red roses, and Poppy Seed Pods (Papaver somniferum) — a wildflower tapestry arranged into a structured floral mosaic. The photographic style is a textural botanical study that blends early 20th-century floral studies with experimental analog techniques. By using the 8x10 inch Polaroid Image Transfer process, I created a work that emphasizes the transfer process onto fine art paper creating a soft, matte finish with muted, “earthy” colors, giving the vibrant reds and yellows a weathered, timeless quality. The physical peeling of the Polaroid positive onto the paper introduces “transfer artifacts”—slight bleeds, uneven edges, and stippled textures—that make the image feel more like a hand-pressed print than a standard photograph. The rigid, four-quadrant layout provides a modern, structural contrast to the organic, wilting forms of the dried flowers, resulting in a taxonomic study aesthetic. The high resolution of the large-format 8x10 captures the brittle, papery detail of the petals and the star-shaped geometry of the poppy pods, making the final print look intensely tactile and layered.