Carl Kleiner’s Elegant Series Of Moving Tulips

Stockholm-based conceptual photographer Carl Kleiner’s video series ‘Postures’ features artfully arranged dying tulips that move in a delicate and melancholic fashion.

Do note, the flowers are not actually moving. The illusion of their freefall is provided by a natural version of stop-motion photography. With regular stop-motion animation, objects are physically manipulated in tiny increments between each individual frame to create an impression of motion. In ‘Postures’, the drooping tulips manipulate themselves with gravity, and because they are in the process of dying. The weight of the flowers change as they slowly dry out, changing in return the shapes that they make in their dances—Kleiner captures images of this process at expertly timed intervals. ‘Postures’ is reminiscent of the Japanese floral art arrangement, Ikebana. The flowers are mounted on a construction of metal wires, with some being propped up by monochrome bases. Kleiner, who is mostly known for his still-life photography, explains of the technique: “The posture series comes from experiments with methods to [position] the flowers in order to photograph them in poses and arrangements that made them look alive”.