PROTEAN ROUTES
INTRODUCTION
John Fleetwood
The protea is an unusual flower whose appearance reflects its resilience. Its ancient lineage dating back 300 million years makes it an evolutionary survivor. The protea is indigenous to South Africa’s Western Cape Fynbos biome. Like photographs, it has witnessed many histories.
Flora offers us a way to understand our world. Today, flowers travel across borders to our homes. Carefully picked, they are transported and distributed in markets, and finally, they deliver their acquired message: love, home, belonging, good luck, acknowledgement, praise. Often, flowers are meant to remind us of someone, just like photographs do.
About 60% of the world’s exported flowers pass through the Netherlands. This book traces the routes that the protea takes to these markets. South African photographers Jabulani Dhlamini and Jansen van Staden set out to think about these routes. They photograph the journeys of the proteas from the fields where they grow through the hands of their pickers and selectors, and along the mechanics of the trade that eventually bring them to our homes.
Beyond its natural beauty, the protea—South Africa’s national flower—carries the imprint of belonging, national identity, and the weight of complex historical legacies. For Dhlamini and Van Staden, the story of the protea is loaded with these realities. The layers of ancestral and national heritage, planetary ecosystems, sustainable socio-political and labour systems, and equality to life and resources are all entangled in their stories.
UNTIL
PROTEAN ROUTES
INTRODUCTION
John Fleetwood
The protea is an unusual flower whose appearance reflects its resilience. Its ancient lineage dating back 300 million years makes it an evolutionary survivor. The protea is indigenous to South Africa’s Western Cape Fynbos biome. Like photographs, it has witnessed many histories.
Flora offers us a way to understand our world. Today, flowers travel across borders to our homes. Carefully picked, they are transported and distributed in markets, and finally, they deliver their acquired message: love, home, belonging, good luck, acknowledgement, praise. Often, flowers are meant to remind us of someone, just like photographs do.
About 60% of the world’s exported flowers pass through the Netherlands. This book traces the routes that the protea takes to these markets. South African photographers Jabulani Dhlamini and Jansen van Staden set out to think about these routes. They photograph the journeys of the proteas from the fields where they grow through the hands of their pickers and selectors, and along the mechanics of the trade that eventually bring them to our homes.
Beyond its natural beauty, the protea—South Africa’s national flower—carries the imprint of belonging, national identity, and the weight of complex historical legacies. For Dhlamini and Van Staden, the story of the protea is loaded with these realities. The layers of ancestral and national heritage, planetary ecosystems, sustainable socio-political and labour systems, and equality to life and resources are all entangled in their stories.
