STUBBORN CACTUS by DELPHINE BEDEL - out of print

Stubborn Cactus’ is the new photobook by Delphine Bedel. For one year, she documented with her iPhone the botanical garden of the VU University in Amsterdam, that was planned to be destroyed in June 2014, once the collection sold. This academic garden was a part of the Biology Department. It host a unique collection of 10.000 plants and the largest collection of cactuses and succulent plants in the Netherlands, as well as centuries old bonsais. Initiating various activities to bring attention to this situation together with a group of people, now the garden and its collection will be preserved for another 8 years.The title was inspired by some of the cactuses quietly growing for the last 50 years around the metal architecture of glass houses.

Playing with both codes of photography and plant preservation, high and lo-fi, in this edition Delphine Bedel purposefully uses all the technical flows of digital and analog medias. She transforms her vernacular high-fi colour snapshots into black and white, flat pressed plant specimens on cardboard, to be stored indefinitely as a record of the flora, a statement on the versatile future of the garden and its collection.

STUBBORN CACTUS by DELPHINE BEDEL

Artworks Delphine Bedel
10 pages, 21x29 cm
Edition 2015, 70 ex, signed and numbered
Edition 2016, 100 ex.
Riso printing, handmade softcover,
Published by Extrapool / Knust. No ISBN
Out of print.

PRESS

Chatelet, Caroline “Photographie obstinée, Interview with Delphine Bedel, NOVO Magazine/ Hors Série Biennale de la Photographie de Mulhouse, 05.2017

Portfolio Delphine Bedel “Photosynthetic, Special issue on photography and botany delivers a rare  insight into a neglected niche of photography”, Filter #7 magazine, 29.09.2017