On March 11^th 2020 we received an email from a photographer named Kate Friend asking if Dan would be interested in participating in an ongoing project. At that point it had the working title ‘A Book of Flowers’ and was the development of a series of photographs Kate had been taking over the previous two years. At the start she had asked gardeners from Great Dixter, Chelsea Physic Garden, Houghton Hall and Fern Verrow biodynamic growers to select some of the best flowers they grew. Then, with medium and large format cameras she then photographed them on film using only natural daylight against simple, painted backdrops in colours of her choice. The resulting portraits were strong, sensitive and compelling.

In 2018 Kate exhibited some of them at the Garden Museum in an exhibition titled ‘Botanical Portraits’. We had seen the exhibition and were intrigued by her process and so Dan was very happy to agree to be involved. Kate explained that she had since asked a number of creative people that she admired to choose their favourite flower including Margaret Howell, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Maggi Hambling, Penny Rimbaud and George Harrison’s wife, Olivia, and that she was was looking to include more people in her selection. We emailed about identifying potential dates for her to shoot at Hillside when some of Dan’s favourite flowers would be in bloom and then…