Where Memory Blooms
— Bridal Floral Portraits
A wedding flower holds both the beauty of the day and its ephemerality — a fleeting moment made visible, just like a photograph. In Where Memory Blooms, we bring these two fragile traces together: a black-and-white bridal portrait, imprinted with the real blooms from your wedding.
Pressed by hand into the photograph, each flower leaves behind a singular, unrepeatable impression — a quiet trace of memory, love, and feminine strength.
Where Memory Blooms began as something deeply personal. In 2021, on our own wedding day in the hills of Spain, I felt an overwhelming need to preserve not just the image of the moment, but its feeling. I wanted to hold a piece of that day in my hands.
This longing became the seed for a new kind of portrait, one where real flowers, pressed into the photograph, leave behind a physical trace of a fleeting moment. Inspired by the brides I photograph – their strength, grace, and quiet resilience – I created this project to honor the beauty of togetherness and the subtle power of connection, presence, and impermanence.
Flowers are more than a symbol of beauty or fleeting moments – they are a reflection of love, strength, and the enduring essence of a shared story. In this art series, I photograph brides in a moment of quiet elegance. Then, using real flowers from their wedding day, I press them into the printed portrait using white paint. Each flower leaves a permanent mark, both physical and symbolic, blending memory with nature in a single, unrepeatable gesture.
Over the years of documenting weddings, I’ve had the chance to meet so many remarkable women from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Often, I wished we could stay connected longer. They inspired me deeply, each of them a kind of muse. To preserve that feminine element, embodied by flowers, in their portraits is also a way for me to honor the strength and inspiration they carried.
I work with black and white photographs, allowing emotion and form to speak without distraction. The floral imprint is added in white, becoming a subtle yet powerful layer that emerges from the image like a whisper, a trace of something both present and fading.
There is only one chance. Once the flowers are coated in pigment and pressed, their texture fades, their form flattens, and delicate fragments are lost. They cannot be reused. This is what makes the process so honest and alive.
It becomes a kind of meditation for me. I must slow down. Handle each petal and stem with care. Their fragility teaches presence. Knowing that the imprint, like the moment itself, can never be repeated.
The result is a unique art piece – imperfect, tactile, honest. A quiet keepsake that holds the beauty of impermanence and the strength of connection. A moment suspended in time, always reminding us of joy, love and the silent power of togetherness.
Sue
Every portrait begins with a conversation. When you’re ready, we’d be honored to hear your story.
