Art imitates life: 2 takes on Eucalyptus leaves & blossoms

Earlier this summer I made the acquaintance of a super talented handcrafted floral artist on Instagram, Abdelnasser Ghoneim. Abdelnasser creates amazing work.. sometimes I’m stunned that his pieces are made purely by hand. 

Being similarly inspired by the botanical world, we decided to do a collaboration. Abdelnasser was drawn to make a paper replica of one of my photos, Eucalyptus Blossoms I. It’s extraordinary that he can arrive at such detail from images alone. So, with a number of emails and Direct Messages back and forth between Cairo and California, here are side-by-side pics of our first “collab”:

Abdelnasser’s paper replica of ‘Eucalyptus Blossoms I’ fine art photograph

‘Eucalyptus Blossoms I’ ~ also in my Earth Day 2020 blog post

Abdelnasser’s paper version at left (top on mobile) was crafted with his keen eye and tireless attention to detail, then photographed and processed in Lightroom.. whereas my clippings from a ~50’ tall Eucalyptus tree were styled and photographed in my studio in the SF East Bay, then processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

I’m truly in awe of Abdelnasser’s talent and imagined that you would be, too.  You can see more of his impressive projects on Instagram, @abdelnasserfloralart, and read a feature about his relatively new art practice on the Carte Fini website.  

We’re discussing a future collaboration, and I’m really looking forward to it.  Yes, life imitates art as Oscar Wilde opined, but so does art imitate life (cheers, Aristotle). 

Abdelnasser Ghoneim

Laura Farrell

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