A reason for joy
every day a colorful flower
outgrown the sun

What a beautiful project. Brazil photographer Vitor Sá and model Carolina Schaffer have created an ongoing series about flowers. They have respected nature and only used flowers that have already fallen from the tree.

The beginning

It was spring 2015. Me, Carolina Schaffer, and Vitor Sá had been living together for 1 year. On a sunny late afternoon, Vitor took the flowers from the living room vase, the tablecloth, and called me: “Bonita, lay down here quickly. I want to take a picture!” After some time gently arranging each flower around my head, click. The photo was chosen by Your Daily Photograph promoted by Duncan Miller Gallery as the best photo in the love-themed contest.

Thus was born #SuaFlora, a series where we use nature as inspiration to give uniqueness to the beauty of flowers. We often think that Sua Flora is also poetry in the form of light, a silent declaration of love for ourselves and for one another, in a gesture of dedication and mutual surrender to art and Mother Nature herself.

And the flowers, where do they come from?

Well, the first picture was a mere chance. We used flowers that I had bought in a market that was close to home in Brasilia. The others appeared to us. Whether it be at the exit of the theater, at the door of the house, on some path in the midst of the Cerrado, at my parents’ house, in the gardens of my grandmother, or on the path we did during our many walks through the city. You know, Brasilia is a very wooded city and I think this made it easier to start the series. Then, of course, we got bolder and started planning trips just to get a certain flower. Today, wherever we go, we keep an eye on the flowers that are all around us. We have already photographed in Chile and the United States, as well as some cities in Brazil. Most of the flowers are from the Cerrado and Atlantic Rainforest.

The process continues the same as the first photo: find the flowers, choose a nice background (usually we used the place where the flower was, or scarfs, or different pieces of fabric), lie down, arrange the flowers (once Vitor took more than 30 minutes doing this – I think that’s the part of the creative process he likes the most!), make a nice face and click.

Each flower has a history, a moment. For example:

Refrigerator Ipê

It was late afternoon when we decided to go for a walk. In the middle of the walk we came across an avenue of flowered Ipês. We did not think twice and began to gather the flowers that had already fallen. When we realized it, night fell and the light was gone. There was no way, we had to put the flowers in the refrigerator. Luckily, the next day they were still amazing.

A rare Calliandra

The delicate red flower of the Cerrado sprouts between the rocks and the dry grass, at the height of the hottest season of the year. The flowers opens during the day and at nightfall, they are already closed. A rarity. Whenever we were going to get a trail I would hope to find them. Many times we have found only one copy. Obviously, we never got it. Until one day we found a field full of them, it was my joy. Particularly it is one of my favorite photos.

What is common in almost all the photos is the respect we have with nature. We always try to choose the flowers that have already fallen from the tree and, when it is the case to collect, we never take all the flowers of the same tree, we go after another of the same species in the vicinity. If it does not have enough flowers for a picture we let the plants intact and we go.

A book, a show and more flowers:

The idea now is to put together all the pictures in a book and who knows how to make an exhibition. In the meantime, we continue to meet in the middle of the flowers. We want to photograph flowers from the Amazon, the Pampa, the Caatinga, the Pantanal (Brazilian Ecosystems)… and, of course, flowers from all around the World.

Who are we?
Vitor Sá – Photographer
Vitor Sá was born in Brasília, the capital of Brazil, on February 11, 1984 and began shooting at age 11. Currently Vitor lives between New York and DC.

www.vitorsa.com / @vitorsaphoto

Carolina Schaffer – Model
Biologist with a Masters in Botany, Carolina was born in the interior of Santa Catarina. Today combines poetry with watercolors and photographs.