The genuine love is clear in a new book celebrating Australia’s flora

When Georgina Steytler’s new book For the Love of Flora arrived it stopped me in my tracks.

It’s beautiful.

A study of Australian flora, and published by Australian Geographic, the strength of the body of work is enormous, but the book has another life over and above the brilliant individual images. It is imbued with Georgina’s spirit and love of the natural world. There is a purity in the way minute and universal (the micro and macro) combine.

For this 240-page, large format, hard-backed book might have an imposing presence, but its pages are full of countless delicacies. There are the carnivorous plants and plants that have healing properties; those that survive in seemingly impossible conditions, and those that are endangered.

Many are photographed in super-sharp, macro detail (revealing the graphic designs of their most intimate parts), but Georgina then puts them into context, with elegant “plantscape” photographs — the flora living where it lives.

The book has a strong sense of confidence and authority — it is an education in the value of the 24,000 plant species that we have in Australia, at least 84 per cent of them endemic and found nowhere else.

Georgina, a clear-minded, experienced and talented writer, says in her introduction: “If you come away from this book with a new admiration, respect and love for our native flora and, even better, a burning desire to get outside in nature and take your own photographs, I will be very happy.

“My definition of success is not to have pleased everyone, only to have inspired someone.”

This book really is a treasure — an outstanding collection that gives us ordinary folk a pure insight into the world around us, in detail that we mostly miss.

It’s a big book, which will doubtless lie on many coffee tables, and live on many bookshelves, inspiring for a long time to come.

ABOUT GEORGINA

Multi award-winning Georgina Steytler describes herself as a nature photographer with a passion for birds, ethics and conservation.

She grew up in Donnybrook and lives in Albany with her husband and a Belgian shepherd dog.

“For the last 10 years I have been working on various conservation projects as well as teaching the art and ethics of nature photography through workshops, talks and articles,” she says.

In November 2021, her first book, For the Love of Birds, was published by Australian Geographic. This follow-up, For the Love of Flora, sits well with it.

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For the Love of Flora by Georgina Steytler is published by National Geographic Australia. It is $59.99 from book shops (including Dymocks, Collins and Boffins) or $75 for a signed copy, including postage, at georginasteytler.com.au