Henning Mankell

Herbarium Amoris: Floral Romance Henning Mankell First edition

The beauty of plants and their sexuality


The notion of plant sexuality was initiated by Swedish botanist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707 1778). Working with his collection of over 20,000 specimens, Linnaeus grouped flowers and plants in a Calendarium Florae, and systematically classified plant species by the number and arrangement of their reproductive parts, drawing direct parallels with human sexual organs. Highly controversial at the time, the assertion that a plant s stamens and pistils mirror human genitalia resulted in a 'sexual revolution' in plant taxonomy.


Swedish photographer Edvard Koinberg creates a modern visual counterpart to Linnaeus s work, approaching the subject with equal passion and dedication. Having cultivated several hundred plants in his country house, Koinberg photographs each delicate bloom in his studio under perfect lighting conditions, depicting the life cycle of various flora as they bud, flourish and wane, resulting in a modern Calendarium Florae, a visual calendar that charts the year through flowers.


In Herbarium Amoris, Koinberg captures the lyricism and refulgent eroticism of the floral world in vivid close-ups, shot against dark backgrounds, the dew glittering on outspread petals, the most delicate of vegetal forms infused with unbridled life force.