Conceived by photographer Jeremy Ayer, the artist book Organs of a Divided Labour - Flowers is an intricate visual study that places the global flower trade under a meticulous lens. Presented through a series of highly detailed, analog photographs, each flower is isolated against a white background, recalling the hyper-focused style of commercial product photography. The images are stripped of any context—no roots, environment, or narrative—turning each flower into an object, emblematic of a commodified nature, devoid of its organic origins. The flowers appear immaculate and uniform, yet strangely vacant, as if caught between beauty and banality, evoking both the allure and emptiness of their commercial existence.

Shot on 4 x 5 positive diafilm, the technical precision of the images replicates the aesthetic standards of late 20th-century commercial photography, where vibrant color and hyper-sharp detail were paramount. The resulting depictions are both beautiful and unnervingly detached, distancing the viewer from any sense of their natural or cultural origins. This neutrality echoes the typological approach of artists like Hilla and Bernd Becher, yet Ayer’s work diverges into a modern exploration, subtly interrogating how commercial images shape our perception of the natural world within a consumerist society.

In Ayer’s imagery, beauty is cultivated to the point of alienation, drawing on commercial conventions to highlight the mechanization of visual culture and nature’s reduction to consumable objects. Through a highly controlled and commercial style mimicry, Organs of a Divided Labour - Flowers invites the viewer to consider the tension between photography as documentation and as a reflection of commodified ideals, engaging with broader socio-economic themes in a carefully crafted visual landscape.

The publication features a reflective essay by landscape architect Violeta Burckhardt on humanity’s obsession with preserving beauty, as well as an in-depth critical analysis of Ayer’s work by art historian Claus Gunti.

236p, Off-set print colour and bw cover, 24x32 cm, pb, English, 2024