Flowery Language

- by Jon Devin

Artists know well there are many forms of language other than the spoken word. Symbols, behaviors, and even things from the natural world have been interwoven into the fabric of human communication. Memphis photographer Teresa Franks spent years studying the “language of flowers,” only to find that even her contemporary version of it is subject to interpretation.

Franks says her husband, Howard Paine, a professor at the Memphis College of Art, always knows when she is busy in her studio, because the door is shut and Joni Mitchell’s Greatest Hitscan be heard right through it.

“I really like to lock myself up in there,” she says. “My husband puts up with it.”

The results of her seclusion include a series of striking floral photographs shot on film, not digitally, entitled The Language of Flowers.  

Franks says that like most of her artistic inspirations, the flowers came from something interesting she read. She learned of a quiet social code by which European nobility of the Victorian Era communicated their discrete loves and romantic overtures through small bouquets of flowers known as tussie-mussies.

According to Franks’ artist’s statement, Charles II of Sweden originally imported the practice from Persia, another conservative society. Throughout the next century social popularity brought it to England and eventually France where entire books were published on the subject including the supposed meaning of various flowers, their positions within the bouquet, the combination of colors, and even the condition of a bloom.

Of course, notes Franks, the codes were never very strict and if someone didn’t necessarily know a lot about it, they just made it up themselves. Misinterpretations were apparently common. By the mid 1800’s tussie-mussies were more fad than fashion.

Still, the communicative power of flowers captivated Franks so much that she shot over 1,000 photos over the course of three years, keeping only about 50 finished works.

“And now I’m a walking encyclopedia of flowers,” she laughs.

Each shot is an extreme close-up with certain areas purposely out of focus, while others are stridently rigid. Franks seems to be attracted to mostly warm colors like fiery crimsons and gold, although she has several white flowers as well. Her textures are the most diverse feature of the series, ranging from clean and smooth to rugged.

Franks says she chose her subjects either by seeing them out in the world and bringing them home, or by learning of them in a book first and seeking them out.

“The mimosa was one I didn’t know anything about until I read about it and got excited about it,” she says.

One challenge in her process was the short life of a cut flower. Franks had to work fast to photograph each flower from as many angles as she could before the hot lights wilted it – though this effect sometimes helped her get just the right image.

Franks, a Memphis native, is a self-employed graphic designer as well as a professional artist with 15 years experience, but she differentiates sharply between those two hats.

“I would never say that art is my job - it’s not my job, it’s what keeps my job doable,” she says. “There’s so many things in life that you have to make compromises, but not with art. It’s nice to do things where you don’t have to make compromises.”

So what do Franks’ flowers communicate?

Franks notes that a lot of people tend to see something sexual in her flowers, and that makes sense to her as the blossoms are the sex organs of plants. To her though, it’s more about romance.

“I suppose it was a very romantic period in my life,” she says.

The Language of Flowers focuses on pieces of the flowers, which expresses a lot about the whole of the flower by giving a fairly common subject some individual personality. Ultimately she hopes the flowers’ appeal will be more intellectual than romantic.

“What I saw when I laid [the photos] all out was that a lot of them are not about sex at all,” she says.

Franks admits that she is not a fan of the classics, and laughs that she could never be an art history major because she can’t remember names or dates. Her admired contemporary artists include photographer Kate Breakey and University of Memphis professor Larry McPherson. Franks will graduate this year with an interdisciplinary degree in art and educational psychology.

All art communicates in one way or another, but it’s not so often that one finds art that celebrates communication itself. Like her wilted subjects, the Victorian language of flowers has faded, but their imagery lives on.

View more of Teresa Franks’ The Language of Flowers and her artist statement at http://photomediacenter.org/franks/frankshome.html.