Since my childhood, I've always liked flowers. My maternal grandmother grew flowers, and I helped her sow, plant and water. Now, in the gardens of my house, I still grow flowers, something so fragile but of unparalleled beauty. In spring and summer, I have picked flowers and leaves to make lumen prints and perpetuate ephemeral beauty. Flowers are very important in Nature: they can feed insects, birds, mammals and humans. They can provide natural medicines for humans and some animals. Flowers are wonderful creations of Nature. The beauty of flowers is of great importance not only from an aesthetic point of view. Many flowers have evolved to become increasingly attractive to pollinating animals, such as bees, wasps and bats. Thus, flowers are of enormous importance to the economy. Flowers transport us to a world of pure beauty, where there is no place for hate, wars, social inequalities, and environmental pollution. Flowers are the Paradise on Earth.

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About
Paulo Monteiro was born June 1963, in São Miguel Island, Azores, where he currently lives and works. He has been a photographer since 1985. A self-taught photographer, he has developed long term projects about various subjects, such as popular religiosity, profane festivities, architecture, landscape, Nature, or the world of work. His work has been displayed and published in Portugal and abroad. His book Açores Profundos|Profound Azores reveals the rituals and the soul of the Azores. His inspiration sources are the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Eugene Smith, Sebastião Salgado and Cristina García Rodero, among others. In parallel with documentary photography projects, he develops experimental photography projects.