KOCHI:“A thing of beauty is a joy forever,” said Romantic poet John Keats a very long time ago. What if one could collect (or let’s say document) the things of beauty around him or her? That’s exactly what British freelance photographer Melanie Sangwine has been doing in India for the past three months.
She has been travelling through the country capturing the beauty of indigenous plants and flowers.
Melanie puts these captured images onto postcards. And she calls the project ‘Florilegium’. Ringing true to its name, she sends it out to people. “I invite people to take part in the project depending on where they are in the world and whether the genus of the plant exists there,” Melanie tells Express.
“I started with people I know and will expand it to strangers in the future. I give or send them a postcard and then they post it back to me with their responses about their place in the world. I ask them to write the postcard anonymously. They have the freedom to interpret in whatever way they choose to,” she said.
With this, she aims to make each postcard an artefact. “The plant I have photographed is given its own narrative and identity as it makes its journey,” Melanie said. “I have received wide-ranging responses - from one-word replies and single sentences to short essays, poems and more questions - for my postcards.”
Melanie herself has a story to tell. Born in Harobele in Kanakapura, Karnataka, she was adopted by British parents when she was just 18 months old. A few years ago, she found her biological family while working for an NGO in Bengaluru. Something was still missing even then, she said. “It takes time to realise one’s identity is not something you find. Identity is a fluid thing and is something you create on your own,” she said.
“The Florilegium project is a reaffirmation to anyone doubting their identity.” Melanie started documenting the plants in her neighbourhood in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her first collection of images are of plants that grow there. “I have always been fascinated by plants. I believe each plant has a story to tell,” she said. “My fascination to document plants is what led me to photography initially. I use photography as a tool for discovery.”
Melanie was in Kochi for a day after visiting Munnar, Alappuzha and Athirappilly waterfalls. Before this leg of the trip, she travelled to the north of India. “What I love most about the country is its extremes. They are catalysts for growth and expands one’s capacity to love,” she said.